Description of Historic Place

The historic place at 27 Alexander Street is a five-storey masonry facade, retained as part of a residential development in Vancouver's Gastown. This facade and the adjacent two-storey masonry facade at 25 Alexander Street front two interconnected buildings. Both buildings were used as a single warehouse until their conversion to residential use in 1996.

Heritage Value

This building at 27 Alexander Street has heritage value for demonstrating the role of Gastown as Vancouver's warehouse district and representing commercial architecture in Gastown in the early twentieth century.

The building was used first by Knowler and McCauley, candy distributors, and later by the Vancouver Supply Company, a grocery wholesaler, as their warehouse facility. When Vancouver Supply Company took over the property in the 1930s, they also bought the adjoining two-storey building. These buildings, and their pragmatic combination, demonstrate particularly well one aspect of Gastown's warehouse function, namely its role as a local distribution centre for groceries and foodstuffs. This role relates, in turn, to Vancouver's function as the destination for goods produced in eastern Canada, as well as the province's distribution centre for locally produced foodstuffs.

This building's architectural value lies in its plain Commercial Style design, representative of Gastown warehouses. The original five-storey building, with a masonry exterior, was built ca. 1907. During the tenure of the Vancouver Supply Company, this building and the building at 25 Alexander Street were united with a single sign that stretched across the front elevation of both.

The conversion to residential use in 1996 adds to its heritage value, representing a trend along this stretch of Alexander Street toward high-end residential use and reflecting the overall demise of Gastown as Vancouver's warehouse district. This conversion saw the addition of two storeys which were designed to be distinguishable from the original fabric. This represents one of the ways Vancouver has tried to conserve its built heritage through increased density.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the historic place include its:
- location on Alexander Street
- spatial relationship to other late Victorian and Edwardian era commercial buildings
- siting on the property lines, with no setbacks
- original surviving brick and sandstone elements of the front facade
- visible difference between the original fabric and new construction
- window arrangement and form, including the heavy stone sills above and below the windows.
- plain metal cornice