The old Marble Arch restored to its original look and name, Hotel Canada (1914 and 2015)
Vancouver鈥檚 Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels are an important part of our built heritage. Their numbers have seriously diminished over the years, but the survivors give the oldest part of town much of its heritage character. The majority were built during the boom years between 1908 and 1913 to accommodate the flood of聽聽coming into town, especially loggers from camps around the province. Though designed as temporary lodging, resource workers often settled in for good after they retired, and today SROs continue to serve as permanent affordable housing.
Years of severe neglect made these hotels derelict and barely habitable. BC Housing now owns many of them, and they鈥檝e with the feds and private sector partners to restore to ensure they鈥檒l be part of Vancouver鈥檚 streetscape for years to come. Collectively these buildings house 900 of the most marginalized Vancouverites. The restoration project is unprecedented in its scope and is being done in stages. Tenants are being temporarily relocated during construction and all have the option of returning to much more dignified digs than what they left.
The old Washington Hotel on Hastings near Main restored to its original look and name, the Maple Hotel (1935 and 2015).
Wherever possible and practical, surviving heritage elements have been or will be restored or even recreated from the original building plans and old photos, such as the new cornice and sign on the Maple Hotel (formerly the ) just west of Main on Hastings. In some cases, long hidden artifacts have been uncovered. Several ghost signs on the side of Hotel Canada include the original hand-painted sign advertising the hotel and another from its days as the Marble Arch, and one that says 鈥淓xport,鈥� likely a remnant of an old cigarette ad. The聽, a longtime Hastings Street blemish, will have its entrance opened up and flanked by the original, long-buried doric columns.
Some of the SROs are too far gone to get the full heritage treatment. It wasn鈥檛 long ago that the Marr Hotel on Powell Street was a contender for being the most unruly and decrepit SRO hotel in the Downtown Eastside. In contrast, Angus Secord 聽as a booze-free, family-friendly hotel and 鈥渁 quiet, cheerful, comfortable residence.鈥� Shoddy renovations, neglect, and abuse over the years have left virtually no heritage features to restore, so the renovations will be less elaborate than some of the other buildings.
The Marr Hotel on Powell Street. The inset photo shows it when it was brand new and named the Secord Hotel (1890 and 2011). This SRO is being renovated, but those groovy wrap-around balconies won't be making a comeback.
I normally focus on social and cultural history rather than heritage conservation, but these SROs often make cameos in stories I come across.聽In , I wrote about some proto-Cold War intrigue going on in the Globe Hotel, or , in Japantown. When boxing legend Jack Johnson 聽shortly after becoming world champ, the was the only one in town willing to rent to the mixed race couple. Tommy Chong came here in the 1950s to pursue a music career with his R&B band and found his first 麻豆传媒映画home at the聽, located聽just a few blocks from where he later stumbled into his true calling as half the comedy duo Cheech & Chong. More infamously, the 鈥� now called the Sunrise and soon to revert to its original name, Hotel Irving 鈥� was such a notorious drug hotspot in the 1950s that Hastings and Columbia was known across Canada simply as 鈥淭he Corner,鈥� a dubious reputation that has since drifted over to Main and Hastings. Similarly, the Maple Hotel its name in 1935 to disassociate it from the nefarious reputation of the previous owner, , who ran it as a brothel. Its old name and look have now been restored.
Renovations at all thirteen SROs should be complete by 2016 at a total cost of $143.3 million.
Thanks to architect, engineer, and heritage preservation consultant for details on the SRO project.
Historical photo credits: Hotel Canada (1914) by WJ Moore (cropped), City of 麻豆传媒映画Archives #PAN N216; Maple Hotel (1935), CVA #Hot N65; Secord Hotel (1890), CVA #Hot P85.
