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118 Alexander Street

118 Alexander Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A, Canada

Formally Recognized: 2003/01/14

Exterior view of 118 Alexander Street; City of Vancouver 2004
Oblique view
Exterior view of 118 Alexander Street; City of Vancouver 2004
North facade
Exterior view of 118 Alexander Street; City of Vancouver 2004
West facade

Other Name(s)

Four Sisters Housing Co-operative
110 Alexander Street
Fleck Brothers Building
118 Alexander Street

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

1898/01/01

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2007/08/21

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

The historic place is the five-storey brick building at 118 Alexander Street (previously known as 110 Alexander Street), built in four stages between about 1898 and 1951, and which collectively form one of the largest building masses in Vancouver's historic Gastown. The building includes a 1951 addition to the west side on what was formerly the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) right-of-way.

Heritage Value

118 Alexander Street has heritage value for its associations, through most of the twentieth century, with wholesale businesses that represent key aspects of Vancouver's commercial economy, and which show this area's importance in the distribution of goods well into the 1960s. It is important for its architectural design and quality, for its sheer scale and imposing mass, and for showing the progression of commercial building design over a half-century period. It is also valued as part of one of the most important modern housing cooperatives in the Downtown East Side.

The oldest component of the building, on lots 29 and 30 (the third through fifth bays from the the east along Alexander Street), is important for representing the architecture of the late Victorian age. Originally only three storeys high, it was built for wholesale grocer W.J. McMillan (subsequently McMillan & Hamilton) about 1898. McMillan arrived in Vancouver from Victoria the day after the Great Fire of 1886, recognizing the greater opportunities in the mainland community. The building's arches, assertive brickwork, and other features continue the Richardsonian Romanesque Style, which first appeared a decade earlier. The building had a flatiron plan, as its northwest elevation followed the CPR right-of-way along an angled alignment.

Two additional bays of similar design were subsequently added immediately east, on lot 31, continuing the design. This second portion replaced a two-storey wood building that had the distinction of being a rare survivor of the fire of 1886. Its upper floor had been used for Roman Catholic church services and as a meeting room known as Keefer's Hall. Demolition gangs did what the fire could not, and the lot stood empty in the late 1890s.

Two additional floors were added to the entire building, raising the height to five storeys, in 1941 (William Frederick Gardiner, architect). While the addition continued the general lines of the design, the window heads are flat and the parapet plain, and steel structural beams are substituted for the original wood, all representative of their era. By this time the building was owned and occupied by Fleck Brothers Ltd., dealers in machinery and industrial supplies, after having stood vacant for some time. Fleck Brothers flourished on the site. The firm acquired the building immediately to the east (144-146 Alexander Street); as well as the CPR right-of-way at the west - showing that the railway was no longer the principal way of moving goods - and built a plain five-storey wedge-shaped addition on it in 1950-51. By 1965, the firm had also acquired the six-storey building across the lane, at 103 Powell Street.

Fleck Brothers remained here well into the 1970s, but by that time Gastown's wholesale industry was waning. In 1988, the building was rehabilitated for residential use as a part of the Four Sisters Housing Co-operative (Davidson and Yuen Partners, architects), a pioneering venture by the Downtown Eastside Residents Association. The work is seen externally in the balcony-like window grilles on the Alexander Street elevation and the fire escape along the eastern wall. The Four Sisters Co-op also includes new construction on Powell Street, built at the same time (Davidson and Yuen), and where the entrance is located; and the adjacent lot to the east, formerly 144-146 Alexander Street.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of 118 Alexander Street include:
- The large massing and high density of the entire building
- The Richardsonian Romanesque design of the original building and its early addition, seen in features such as the round, arched doorway, the segmental arches over the windows, the pier-and-spandrel motif (the window spandrels are recessed behind the vertical piers), the corbels at the original (3rd floor) and present (5th floor) parapets, and the assertive brickwork
- The angled internal wall that marks the former northwest elevation, which faced on the CPR right-of-way
- The metal window grilles on the Alexander Street elevation
- The regular rhythm of the window openings on the Alexander Street elevation
- The thin cornice on the western (1951) portion

Recognition

Jurisdiction

British Columbia

Recognition Authority

City of Vancouver

Recognition Statute

Vancouver Charter, s.593

Recognition Type

Heritage Designation

Recognition Date

2003/01/14

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

1941/01/01 to 1941/01/01
1950/01/01 to 1951/01/01
1988/01/01 to 1988/01/01

Theme - Category and Type

Developing Economies
Trade and Commerce

Function - Category and Type

Current

Residence
Multiple Dwelling

Historic

Commerce / Commercial Services
Shop or Wholesale Establishment
Commerce / Commercial Services
Office or Office Building

Architect / Designer

William Frederick Gardiner

Builder

n/a

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

DhRs-97

Status

Published

Related Places

n/a

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