Description of Historic Place

The Cheng Wing Yeong Tong Society Building at 79 East Pender Street, the 'main street' of Vancouver's Chinatown, is a three-storey brick structure incorporating a store at ground level with accommodation above, surmounted by a Tong meeting hall on the third floor.

Heritage Value

The Cheng Wing Yeong Tong Society Building has value for illustrating renovations and additions made to a decade-old existing structure during Chinatown's boom years of the 1920s, which added space to accommodate a Tong and to adapt the building to the newly dominant 'Chinatown style' of architecture, and thereby express its 'Chinese-ness'. The renovations also illustrate the intense development that took place along East Pender Street during the 1920s, when Chinatown's population was growing.

The lower two storeys maintain vestiges of a restrained, Italianate-style brick building, erected in 1911 for Lang Kwan. The architects of record are Campbell and Dawson; the drawings, dated 1915, are signed by W.H. Chow, Vancouver's first Chinese-Canadian architect, whose work is prolific in Chinatown. The third storey extension of 1925-26, the work of architect Henry Holdsby Simmonds, is an important example of a purpose-built headquarters and meeting room for a tong (surname support association), the Cheng Wing Yeong Tong Society. The building, as altered, reflects the characteristics of the developed Chinatown architectural style, particularly seen in the recessed balcony and pediment-capped parapet. This layered history, with its multiple architects, added density, and the addition of 'Chinese' elements, contributes to the building's heritage value.

The building's heritage value also derives from its longstanding association with the Cheng Wing Yeong Tong Society. Organizational life flourished in Chinatown during the early 1920s; the number of active Tongs expanded as they assumed an important role both in community life and as property owners along East Pender Street. Their growth resulted from the increase in Chinatown's population, fuelled by immigration from China and migration from other centres in British Columbia; an increased interest in Chinese politics within the immigrant community; and heightened discrimination from their white neighbours. The value is consolidated by the building's continuous occupancy by the same association to the present day.

Additional heritage value is found in the considerable pride the Tong takes in its association with Douglas Cheng (Jung), the first Chinese-Canadian to be accepted to the British Columbia bar, the first to be elected to Parliament (representing Vancouver Centre, in 1957), the first to represent Canada at the United Nations, and an active campaigner for the repeal (in 1947) of the Exclusion Act, which prevented Chinese-Canadians from obtaining citizenship.

The restoration of the third floor in 1991, following a fire, illustrates the commitment of the Tong members to furthering their society, the importance of heritage conservation in Chinatown, and the enduring importance of the Tongs as a vehicle for expression of community values and identity.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Cheng Wing Yeong Tong Society Building include:
- Location on the north side of East Pender Street, Chinatown's principal street, close to Main Street
- Height above adjacent structures
- Remnants of a flagstaff
- Parapet surmounted with a classically-decorated pediment, incorporating the date of completion and the Tong name
- Metal cornice
- Recessed balcony, inset balcony frame, and cast iron balustrade
- Group of three-light sash windows with projecting brick drip mouldings
- Remains of the store front awning box
- Difference in style between the second and third floors, which emphasises the later date of the top storey addition
- Asymmetrical store front with side staircase
- Store front windows
- Use of third floor meeting rooms for assembly purposes