Description of Historic Place

The Great Western Hotel is a three storey masonry building, built in two stages, located on the northeast corner of Cambie and Water Streets in the historic district of Gastown.

Heritage Value

Gastown is the historic core of Vancouver, and is the city's earliest, most historic area of commercial buildings and warehouses. The Great Western Hotel is valued as an early Gastown hotel, representative of the area's seasonal population in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as Vancouver emerged as western Canada's predominant commercial centre. Hotels such as this provided both short and long-term lodging, serving primarily those who worked in the seasonal resource trades such as fishing and logging. Many of these hotels had combined functions of commercial services on the ground floor and lodging rooms on the upper floors, which contributed to the lively street life in Gastown. The Great Western Hotel, built in 1902, with a 1911 addition extending down Cambie Street, illustrates the rapid growth in Gastown during the pre-First World War era.

The Great Western Hotel is valued as an example of the turn-of-the nineteenth century transition between the Victorian era styles and the new, simpler classically-inspired styles of the Edwardian era, illustrating how popular architectural styles were used by the hotel business to market a progressive image. Architect W.T. Dalton (1854-1931) designed the original portion of the building, which was built by prominent local contractors Baynes and Horie. Architect Thomas Hooper (1857-1935) designed the 1911 addition for owner and contractor, K.K. Bjerkness. It is an important physical manifestation of the ideal of Gastown as a progressive business district, and Vancouver as a modern city at the turn of the twentieth century.

Source: City of Vancouver, Heritage Planning Street Files

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Great Western Hotel include:
- prominent corner location on the north side of Water Street, in close proximity to the waterfront of Burrard Inlet and the Canadian Pacific Railway yard
- siting on the property lines, with no setbacks
- form, scale and massing, including the distinction between the 1902 and 1911 portions of the building
- combination of Victorian Italianate elements on the 1902 building, such as its segmental arched window openings and bracketed cornice, and the Edwardian era elements on the addition, such as its block modillion cornice, simple brick facade (now parged) and sandstone sills
- decorative elements on the 1902 building, such as corbelled brick detailing below the cornice and a bull's eye ground level window with original multi-paned wood-sash