Description of Historic Place

135 East Pender Street is a three-storey brick commercial building, with a store at street level with a Tong Association meeting hall above, in Vancouver's Chinatown.

Heritage Value

135 East Pender Street has value for being representative of the dominant building type erected during the neighbourhood's construction boom in the early 1920s, with respect to its architectural design, its uses, and its occupants.

Built in 1923 to the designs of local English-Canadian architect A. Ernest Henderson for Chinese-Canadian owners, and replacing a building of 1914 by Chinese-Canadian architect W.H Chow, the historic place, originally called the 'Business Building', is typical of many that show the features of the Chinatown architectural style that had developed a decade earlier, and was, by this time, the accepted manner for new and renovated buildings along East Pender Street. The present building is less flamboyant in its design than many others of the type.

The uses were also representative of the area, with the ground floor dedicated to retail businesses, the mezzanine floor for storage, the first floor for a restaurant and the upper floor used by community service associations. At least three surname associations ('Tongs') have occupied the building: the Hoi Ping Association, the Lung Kong Kung Shaw Association, and the Lee Kwong Kai Society. The latter two groups have been associated with the building since its construction.

Organizational life flourished in Chinatown during the early 1920s; the number of active Tongs expanded and they assumed an important role as property owners along Pender Street. The reasons for expansion include the overall increase in Chinatown's population, fueled 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 the white community. The timing of construction combined with the significant role the Tongs played in community life and in shaping the built environment along East Pender Street, adds to the building's heritage value.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of 135 East Pender Street include:
- Central block location on East Pender Street
- Use of pale buff brick for mullions, transom panels and party walls
- The recessed balcony
- The decorative elements on the facade, including the date of completion on the parapet, the sheet metal cornice and the metal frieze at mid-height, all supported on stylized metal corbels
- The 'cheater' storey (illegal mezzanine) above the ground floor
- A building-wide storefront arranged asymmetrically within the building elevation, accommodating a left-hand door and stair serving the meeting hall above.
- Use of upper floors for assembly space and community organization offices