Description of Historic Place

The Collins Hotel is located on the east side of Washington Street, midway between Columbia and First Avenues,in Rossland, British Columbia. It is a two-and-a-half storey, flat-roofed frame building in the vernacular style. Its south wall marks the edge of the alley that separates the Collins Hotel from the Bank of Montreal building. The historic place includes the building on its footprint.

Heritage Value

The Collins Hotel is valued as being part of an original, dense streetscape of downtown Rossland that dates back to 1896. The Washington Street buildings escaped the horrific fires of 1902, 1927 and 1929 that destroyed so many of the early commercial buildings in other parts of the downtown.

The presence of the Collins Hotel today acts as a reminder that hotels were the most common type of building in downtown Rossland during the boom years of construction, growth and mine development - the Collins Hotel being just one of forty Rossland hotels in 1900. The hotels played an important role in the early social history of the community, providing accommodation, often a place to eat, and always a place to socialize in the bar-room, for the newly-arrived, business people and the travelling public.

The Collins Hotel is an example of a common characteristic of Rossland's downtown buildings in that its use has changed many times over the years, reflecting changing needs and perceived business opportunities. The Collins Hotel and its neighbour, the Hoffman House, were joined in 1934 to provide premises for a hardware store that operated until the 1990s, with apartments replacing the bedrooms on the second floor.

Façade improvements in 2007 enhanced the heritage character of the Collins Hotel and added to the visual appeal of Washington Street, supporting the historic ambiance of Rossland's downtown.

Source: City of Rossland

Character-Defining Elements

Key character-defining elements of the Collins Hotel include:

- Location in the historic Rossland downtown area
- Location within the original commercial streetscape of Washington Street
- Original clapboard siding
- A second storey veranda across the front of the building
- A wooden awning supported by pillars at the curb edge, across the front of building
- A plaque identifying the Collins Hotel as one of Rossland's significant heritage buildings