Description of Historic Place

The Filion Block is a three storey masonry building, located on the east side of Carrall Street near Maple Tree Square at the irregular intersection of Alexander, Powell, Water and Carrall 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 Filion Block is significant for its association with Arthur G. Ferguson, who built the original one storey portion of this retail building. Ferguson, one of the city's pioneer landowners and developers, built a successive series of buildings, including the adjacent structure to the north, and named each one, in turn, the 'Ferguson Block.' As a result there are a number of buildings in the area that were known by that name at one time during their history; this was called the 'Ferguson Block' when it was built in 1889. It was subsequently purchased by pioneer grocer Frank Filion, who operated his business here for a number of years before he decided to renovate and add to the existing structure. The existing form of the building is the result of Filion's two storey addition in 1909 to the original one storey brick structure. When complete, the building was re-opened as a hotel.

The Filion Block is valued as an early Gastown hotel, representative of the area's seasonal population in the early twentieth century, as Vancouver emerged as western Canada's predominant commercial centre. It was one of several hotels, including the Alhambra, the Europe and the Bodega, located adjacent to Maple Tree Square, Vancouver's earliest public open space. 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 current configuration of the Filion Block is also significant as an example of the commercial work of architects Parr and Fee, who had a profound effect on the look of Edwardian Vancouver. Progressive in their use of evolving technology, the firm of John Edmeston Parr (1856-1923) and Thomas A. Fee (1860-1929) designed the distinctive white glazed brick facade as an alternative to the use of more expensive cut stone or terra cotta cladding, reflecting the popularity of the Neoclassical Revival during the Edwardian era.

Source: City of Vancouver, Heritage Planning Street Files

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Filion Block include:
- location adjacent to Maple Tree Square, in close proximity to the waterfront of Burrard Inlet and the Canadian Pacific Railway yard
- spatial relationship to other Late Victorian and Edwardian era commercial buildings
- siting on the property lines, with no setbacks
- form, scale and massing as expressed by its three storey height, flat roof and rectangular plan with side airshafts
- masonry cladding, including: the use of distinctive white glazed bricks on the front facade, sandstone lintels and common red brick side and rear facades
- Edwardian era architectural details, such as the articulated sheet metal cornice
- fenestration, such as centre-pivot wood-sash windows with double transoms above on the front facade and double-hung 2-over-2 wood-sash windows on the rear facade
- interior details such as the mosaic ceramic floor tile and pressed tin ceilings throughout the main floor retail space and in the entry to the upper floors