We’re on the lane before Seymour Street in 1961, with Seymour Billiards on our left (at 999 Seymour), and 1002 Seymour across the junction on the right. The billiards hall started life as a repair garage in 1926, designed by Swinburne Annandale Kayll for William and Herbert Boultbee. Just beyond is the edge of a sign for a U-Drive parking lot – seen better in 1981 in an earlier post.

We haven’t found the permit for the two storey stucco building on the right, so we don’t know who built it, probably in 1909. It’s first tenant was Edward MacLeod, a shoemaker who lived on Water Street, who was here in 1910, and joined a year later by James Fraser, a grocer, who lived a block away. The last date that’s easy to trace the occupants of buildings is 1955; in that year the California grocery store was here, as it had been since at least the early 1930s, although in the 30’s it was Harry Chapelas running the store, and in 1955 Ramon Chapelas, who had added a coffee bar.

Down the hill on the junction of Homer, on the CPR Reserve lands released for development in 1909, is the warehouse built by Richard Bowman and occupied initially by the Bogardus Wickens & Begg Glass Company. It’s still standing today, part of the true ‘Yaletown’, although these days it’s an office building over Shopper’s Drug Mart. Leading up to it Polygon Homes built three similarly designed residential towers in the 2000s, and there are also residential towers on the north side of the street, but with a retail base.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 772-19

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We saw both these buildings in earlier posts. The smaller three storey building that’s still standing today (to the west of the larger building) was developed by former CPR stores manager Richard Bowman in 1906. The adjacent larger building came five years later, again developed by Mr. Bowman. He occupied the upper floors as a storage warehouse, and leased the main and basement stores to a variety of tenants over the years. His son, Oscar took over the business, and commissioned another warehouse on East Hastings in the early 1920s, (although we’re fairly certain it was never built). From 1950 Bowman Storage also occupied premises across the street from this building.

In 1952 there was a significant fire that was captured in this Archives image. We’re guessing that the extensive rebuild needed after the fire was when the windows were bricked up. It’s surprising that there was anything remaining to rebuild; the Vancouver Sun reported that “Vancouver’s most expensive fire in two years raged out of control for six hours and 31 minutes in the heart of a waterfront industrial area Sunday causing $500,000 damage to a four-storey warehouse and surrounding buildings“.  The paper reported that at its height 375 firemen were fighting the fire, aided by the fireboat poring water onto the building from the harbour. “At one point firemen were forced to chop holes in the brick walls of the storage building to release water which had risen to window-sill depth on the second floor“. The newspaper reported the fire in great detail; “A dense pall of smoke hung over the entire downtown area Sunday. , Loss was mostly household furniture stored in the building. It was covered by insurance. Several hundred people had goods stored in the building.” “Efforts to raise ladders on five aerial trucks were hampered by trolley and electric wires at the scene.”

Although reported as a total loss, the building seen in the 1985 image appears to be the exact same as the original. It was eventually demolished some years after this picture was taken. After the site stood vacant for many years it was redeveloped in 2018 with a new storage warehouse, this one designed by Christopher Boyzic.

Image sources: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 790-0877 and CVA 447-171

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This 1918 image shows Richard Bowman’s storage business warehouse. The smaller building to the west was also developed by Mr. Bowman some years earlier, but this larger building was first approved in 1909, to cost $30,000, designed, built and owned by Mr. Bowman. He built a further $3,900 addition in 1911 (perhaps at the back, on the lane, when we think the whole building was completed).

The main and basement floors were leased to a number of businesses. In the 1918 image there were two paint companies, bookending Copp Stoves, who sold heaters, ranges and furnaces. To the west was Sherwin Williams, a US based paint company founded in Cleveland in 1866. Farquar and Gill, had warehouse space with an entrance in the lane on the basement floor. They advertised as the ‘North of Scotland Color Works’, and were based in Aberdeen. Starting as painters and glaziers in 1818, the founders created their own line of paints, (the first to be supplied ready-mixed) and expanded throughout Britain and across the Commonwealth. Farquhar and Gill’s Colour Works operated until 1972.

On the main floor the last unit, 831 Powell, was shared by Artistic Fire Places and Morrison Steel and Wire Co, the successor to the BC Wire and Nail Co. Harry Duker had the rights to the flank wall, with painted advertisements for Shelly’s 4X Bread, and Black Watch chewing tobacco – “A Man’s Chew”.

Mr. Bowman ran his own fleet of removing trucks, and as this 1918 image shows, if needed, the load extended some distance outside the vehicle.

More recently the site was vacant for many years, but was redeveloped in 2018 with a new storage warehouse, designed by Christopher Boyzic.

Image sources: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 99-185 and CVA 99-5382

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Remarkably, these three storey buildings have survived almost unchanged for over 100 years. On the 1912 insurance map they’re shown as the warehouse of ‘Crane & Co’. In 1913 there was an $8,000 permit to alter the 4-storey warehouse for owner A E Young, to be designed and built by Kennett & Tinney Co. A E Young was shown in the street directory as a broker in 1912, and was identified as A Emslie Young a year later. He was Scottish, (from Elgin) and married in Scotland in 1915. He may have returned to Vancouver as Alex E Young, secretary of the newly created Seaton Coal Co Ltd, (formerly the Grand Trunk B.C. Coal Co, with a mine on the Bulkley River) was living on the north shore in 1916. In 1918 A E Young was secretary-treasurer of H J Gardiner & Co Ltd, manufacturers agents, with premises in this building, and he still owned the building in 1920, when this image was taken.

The building had first appeared in street directories in 1906, when it was listed as ‘C Gardener, warehouse’.  Mr. Gardener has been entirely elusive – he appears in the city a year earlier, and had apparently left by 1908, so we have been unable to discover what he did in the warehouse. From the water connection permit, dug out by Heritage Vancouver’s Patrick Gunn, we know that the developer was Richard Bowman. We looked at his history in connection with a 1909 warehouse he developed in Yaletown, on Homer Street. He went on to build an even larger warehouse a couple of years later, on Beatty Street and another adjacent to this building. He had worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway, running their stores, and went on to build a series of storage warehouses, but as far as we can see this building was an investment, rather than a part of his storage operation. We don’t know who he hired to design the building – if anybody; he claimed to design and build a similarly designed warehouse.

In 1908 it appears that P Burns & Co were using the warehouse. (the numbering moved around on the block for a few years). A year later ‘Crane and Co’ were listed occupying the warehouse upstairs. We’re pretty certain this was a minor mislabeling of Crane Co, a Chicago based steam, mill, and plumber’s supplies company whose earlier premises were on the corner of Alexander and Carrall. In 1908 Crane bought Boyd, Burns and Co who occupied another Powell Street warehouse. In 1911 they built a much larger warehouse, and moved to Beatty Street, and by 1920 their warehouse had moved to Yaletown.

On the main floor Edward Blackwell, a manufacturers agent for Railway, Machinery and Logging Supplies was in 821, Mr. Blackwell had previously been based in the Temple Building on West Pender, and a few years later moved again to Alexander Street. 823 was occupied (but anonymously), and the Mooney Biscuit & Candy Co were in 825. The biscuit company were based in Stratford, Ontario. In 1907 Mooney’s advertisement claimed they were ‘the fastest growing business in the Dominion’, and had added a fleet of their own rail cars to ship their ‘Perfection Cream Soda’ biscuits around the country. By 1914 they were manufacturing in British Columbia, and were based in on Homer Street, having bought rival Smith’s Biscuits, but by 1916 they were in receivership.

In 1912 Pacific Builders Supply Co had replaced Mr. Blackwell, and occupied two thirds of the building (including the upper floors), and they stayed until 1915, and their part of the building was vacant a year later. Snowden C C Oils had moved into 825 that year, and they can be seen in the middle part of the building at 823 in our 1920 picture. They are flanked by two rice importers, Asahi & Co, rice millers in 821, and S Lowrie, rice merchant in 825 (although for some reason the street directory shows that unit as vacant from 1918 to the early 1920s). By 1925 821 was vacant, the North West Sack Co were in 823 and Macdonald & Wilson were in 825. Five years later the sack company were still here, 825 was empty, and 821 had ‘The Radioland’ as tenants, along with the Vancouver Plating & Manufacturing Co and the Vancouver Fire Screen Manufacturing company.

By the end of the Second World War the sack company still occupied these premises; at 821 and 823. In 825 the intriguingly named National Waste Manufacturing were tenants. The two companies still operated here in 1955, joined by Blair White & O’Keefe, Importers. Today, after recent renovations, the building houses office space above, and a lingerie manufacturer on the main floor.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives Str N44.

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We saw these warehouses on Beatty Street as they were in 1927 in an earlier post; here they are as they were in 1974.

On the left is Storey and Campbell’s 1911 warehouse, designed by W T Whiteway which cost $60,000 to build. Jonathan Storey and Roderick Campbell, Jr., were both from Ontario, and in 1892 founded Storey and Campbell which began by selling leather items like harnesses, saddles, and trunks. They initially acquired the saddle-making business of D S Wilson, who moved to Los Angeles; Storey and Campbell expanded the scope of the business over the years – in 1921 their listing said they dealt in shoe findings, leather harness and saddlery, trunks, bags, valises and gloves. The street directory makes it clear that this was a significant manufacturing operation that was large enough to employ a chauffeur and an elevator operator as well as many saddlemakers and leather workers. The advert on the right is from 1932, when they had added golf bags to their range.

The historic building statement claims “As times changed and horses and wagons were replaced, the company also became sole agents in British Columbia for Studebaker commercial trucks. They eventually covered the area from Vancouver to Winnipeg.” We can find no evidence of that at all – a series of dealerships had the Studebaker brand sales over the years – none of them were Storey and Campbell.

In 1901 Jonathan Storey was aged 32, two years older than Roderick Campbell, who was married to Annie. The street directory said he was called Johnathan and put him in a new house at 1771 Haro Street, the same as the Campbell family, with the saddlery business based at 154 West Hastings. Annie had previously been Annie Storey, and the partners were brothers-in-law.

The Campbells moved to a house on the 2000 block of Haro, but Roderick died unexpectedly in 1919, after an operation to remove an impacted tooth. His will was complex, and led to an internal family split. Annie Campbell had to sue her brother, as the Daily World reported “Mrs. Annie Campbell, 1001 Georgia street west, widow of the late Mr. Rod Campbell, is asking the assistance of the court in an attempt to compel her brother, Jonathan Storey, the defendant, to sell property, which they own jointly, and with the proceeds to purchase her interest in the firm of Storey & Campbell Limited. Mrs. Campbell estimates her interest at $159,200.

Following the death of her husband, November 22, 1919, Mrs. Campbell stated today she discussed with her brother the proposal that he should acquire her interest in the business. The agreement was verbal, she said, and was made during the course a trip in her automobile in July, 1920″.

We don’t know how the case was settled, but Annie lived on until 1947, and in 1921 Jonathan Storey was still managing director of the company (as he was in 1951), and was also running the Vancouver Trunk and Bag Limited based on Charles Street. William A Cambell was vice-president of the company, and lived in the Hotel Vancouver – although as far as we can tell he wasn’t a relative of Roderick.

Like some others on the street, the warehouse was constructed with a steel-frame and exterior brick walls, which provided a measure of fire protection. Unusually for the time it had a sprinkler system and was connected with the fire department. There was a showroom and offices on the ground floor and mezzanine. Loading and unloading occurred at the lane and railway tracks, with a large freight elevator next to the loading dock. The building’s storefront underwent alteration in 1940, designed by architect Thomas Kerr, known for the design of several local theatres. Storey and Campbell remained in the building until 1951, when they sold the dry goods business to the Gordon Mackay Company Ltd. of Toronto, reportedly the largest textile distributor in Canada at the time. The building was converted to 48 apartments in 1996, designed by K C Mooney.

Next door, in the centre of the picture, today’s Bowman Lofts building was converted to residential use in 2006, 100 years after it was first built. The original building was five storeys (although seven on the lane as there’s a significant grade drop, and the rail sidings at the back of the warehouses were over 20 feet lower than Beatty Street). It was developed by Richard Bowman, whose history we examined in relation to another warehouse he built on Homer Street. He operated Bowman’s storage, with a warehouse on Powell Street, but this building was never occupied by his storage business. We haven’t been able to track the architect of the original structure, but seven years later another two storeys were added, designed by F Rayner and costing $5,000, but the building you see today was severely damaged by fire in 1929 and rebuilt in 1944 with a new façade designed by Townley and Matheson.

The building was initially occupied by two manufacturing companies owned by prominent businessman W J Pendray: the British Columbia Soap Works and British America Paint Company Ltd. (BAPCO), both headquartered near Pendray’s home in Victoria. The soap works was sold to American commercial giant Lever Brothers after Pendray’s death in 1913. The building remained the local warehouse for BAPCO Paints for many decades. It was also associated with the Vancouver Rubber Co, later Gutta Percha & Rubber Co. Ltd. The flammable nature of these industrial products was the cause of a fire that gutted the building in 1929. A third company, Tilden, Gurney and Co also occupied the building when it was first built. They were an Ontario stove manufacturer, based in a huge building complex in Hamilton. Miller & McDonald, a sash and door company occupied the rear of the premises. In 1907, James Little, the janitor of their premises trapped his foot between the floor and the elevator. It took an hour for the firemen to find him, and his leg had to be amputated, and it was unclear whether he would survive. The newspaper of the day published all the gory details: “While at work greasing the guys of the elevator the ladder on which he was standing slipped, throwing him in such a position that his foot was caught by the moving elevator, horribly mangling it and breaking the bone of his leg just above the ankle. No one else was in the building at the time of the accident, and it is supposed Little lay suffering for more than an hour before being discovered. The ambulance from the Vancouver general hospital was – telephoned for but it was fully thirty minutes before it arrived. It came without a surgeon and with only one man, the driver. No one was there to relieve the injured man. weak from loss of blood and suffering excruciating pain. T. Smith, a glazier for Miller & McDonald, volunteered to accompany the poor old man to the hospital. On the way a freight train at the Beatty street crossing blocked the street for several minutes. No effort was made to break the train to allow the suffering man to be hurried to the hospital It was found necessary to amputate the foot. The patient’s condition in precarious owing to the advanced age of patient. James Little was employed as janitor by Miller & McDonald Sash and Door company. He is seventy – five years of age and has been in their employ for about two months, he has no relatives as far as known.”

The Paint Company commissioned the 1944 rebuild, but later the building changed to clothing manufacturing and offices. A two-storey addition, set back from the facade, was constructed as part of the building’s rehabilitation and conversion to condos, designed by Ankenman Marchand and Gair Williamson Architects.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 778-6

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The 5-storey warehouse on the corner of Homer and Nelson Street was owned, designed and built by R Bowman in 1909. There was a well-known Vancouver architect, Joseph H Bowman, but R Bowman was somebody else (and no relation, as far as we can tell). Heritage Vancouver have found the Vancouver Sun description of the development. In October, 1909 they reported that “A building permit was this morning taken out by Mr. R. Bowman for a five-story block located on the southeast corner of Nelson and Homer streets, the site having been recently acquired from the C.P.R. The building will be of brick construction throughout, and is designed for warehouse and factory purposes. It is understood that before it was planned a ten-year lease of the premises was made to representatives of a local industry which will employ 50 hands as soon as operations are started“. The ‘local industry’ mentioned in the article was the Vancouver based Bogardus Wickens & Begg Glass Company (formerly the B.C. Plate Glass Importing Company).

In 1901 Richard Bowman’s Trade or Occupation is described in the census return as storekeeper and the 1911 Street Directory clarifies that he was storekeeper for the CPR shops. However, in 1911, the single word entry for Mr Bowman’s occupation says ‘Income’ and the 1912 Directory (which reflects what he was doing in 1911) refers to him as a commercial agent. He arrived in Canada from England either in 1875 or 1881 (the two census records show different dates). By 1901 He had a wife, Nancy (who had also been born in England but arrived before Richard either in 1866 when she was only aged four or 1870 when she would have been eight.), Their son, Oscar, is listed as being born in Ontario in the 1901 Census, and England in 1911, and was born in either 1883 or 1886. As far as the 1911 census is concerned he had not arrived in Canada (as an immigrant at least) until 1907 although he was living with his parents in Vancouver in 1901. James H Bowman, Richard’s nephew, was also living with the family in 1901. The Bowman family lived in a turreted house at 1101 Harwood before moving to Osler.

We don’t know if Mr Bowman really designed the building. F H Rayner was architect for the added floors on Bowman’s warehouse on Beatty Street, and a house for him on Osler Avenue, but that was in 1913.  He only has one other building listed, also in 1913, so he probably wasn’t in Vancouver in 1909.

Richard Bowman’s son, Oscar and his nephew, James were shown running Bowman Storage by 1911, but Oscar died in 1923, and in the 1920 US Census Richard and Nancy Bowman were living in Long Beach, California. Richard died in Vancouver in 1926 and Oscar’s widow, Beatrice, ran the company from 1926 to her death in 1941. Beatrice married Oscar in 1913 and became bookkeeper for the Bowman company.

At some point – apparently quite early in its history – the building added office uses to the upper floors. While today there is a Shoppers Dug Mart on the main floor and a TD Bank beneath it, in the early 1950s it was the Canada Cycle & Motor Co. Today there are a number of office users upstairs, including several mining exploration companies, acupuncture, aromatherapy and a yoga studio. In 1952 it was the Canadian Mercantile Insurance Co, the Commerce Mutual Insurance Co and C R Padget’s real estate office.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 779-E12.30 (1981)

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