Description of Historic Place

Located on the southeast corner of East Hastings Street and Market Alley, the Roosevelt Hotel is a six-storey, reinforced concrete, Edwardian commercial structure.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Roosevelt Hotel lies in the historic relationship between this area and the economy of early Vancouver. At the turn of the twentieth century, this area of town was developed as a shopping area as commercial activity spread outward from its early roots in Gastown. As the young city grew, so did its commercial district. It was the home of several hotels, lodgings, and small retail outlets which were established to serve the growing blue-collar population.

The Roosevelt Hotel is significant because it was the home of Molson’s Bank, one of several privately-financed banks founded in the mid-nineteenth century in Canada. It was an example of eastern Canadian capital investment in British Columbia. The bank had 125 branches across Canada by 1925, when it was absorbed by the Bank of Montreal. This East End Branch was built in this location, in the heart of Vancouver’s early commercial and civic core, to serve the financial needs of the surrounding retail and accommodation outlets. It was designed by H.L. Stevens, who was based in New York but had a branch office in Vancouver for a few years from 1911 and was responsible for several landmark buildings in the United States. The upper storeys were used for offices for doctors, dentists, lawyers, and other professionals.

The building is similar in construction design and details to early twentieth-century banks across Canada. The Edwardian commercial style took advantage of evolving technology; the advances in reinforced concrete construction and the development of the elevator meant that buildings could rise higher above the ground, while the use of terra cotta ornamentation reflected current tastes in the United States. The interior contains marble finishes and "was intended to give the East End patrons...a pleasing place in which to transact their business." The design was intended to exemplify the solidity of the banking business and, by inference, the stability of the new City of Vancouver.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Roosevelt Hotel include:
- the building's early skyscraper form, scale and rectangular massing
- built right to the lot line with no setbacks
- its functional relationship with other buildings within the Hastings Street strip and adjoining neighbourhoods
- its location on an alley
- characteristics of the Edwardian style including: tripartite facade (upper portion highly ornamented with terra cotta swags, central portion of plain brick and lower portion of rusticated stone); pattern of fenestration including paired sets on the front facade, arched upper windows on lower storey, and shop fronts; frieze with volute and dentil trim; terra cotta blocks and intricate cornice above first-storey windows; upper cornice which continues around the alley facade