Fantasy Factory on Granville

I was looking through some older images recently and came across a few of an Adult XXX store on Granville Street that's not around anymore. This store was part of the Fantasy Factory chain and was in the Clifton Hotel at 1127 Granville Street. As far back as 2009 it seemed like Granville Street still had plenty of Adult stores. But seeing as the 2010 Winter Olympics were just around the corner suddenly several quietly disappeared. Whether this was by design or by natural selection it's hard to tell. The City did do an extensive redesign of Granville Street in preparation for the big events in 2010. Here's a photo of the Fantasy Factory storefront in the fall of 2009.

Since 2009 many old stores along Granville Street have been renovated hoping to attract higher end tenants. This has met with mixed success. Many different shops have come and gone since then but it seems like restaurants and eateries have had the most staying power. Here's another old shot of the storefront from the fall of 2010.

It seemed like this location of the Fantasy Factory was going to hang in there but that all changed in 2014. At that time the Hotel Clifton was making the news for all the wrong reasons. It seems the tenants who lived in the rooms upstairs were complaining of substandard living conditions. Instead of seeing improvements they were met with eviction notices! Thus began a long protracted battle between the owners of the hotel and City Hall. Basically the hotel was eventually emptied out and then put up for sale. So by the end of 2014 the Fantasy Factory was gone as well. Here's a photo of how the hotel looked in late 2014.

A Google search reveals the hotel has been sold and it had an asking price of $7,788,000.00! So hopefully the new owners will renovate the old place as it's been empty for three years now. I'm thinking the Fantasy Factory won't return though. It was part of a chain and there are still quite a few sprinkled around the greater Vancouver area. But with it's neon signs it did give Granville Street a bit of gritty charm at night.

Empty Stores on Granville Street

Back in October I was over in the South Granville area and noticed a higher than usual number of empty stores. South Granville is of course home to higher end and swankier retail shops and galleries so rents are already pretty pricey. The area I noticed was only in a two block stretch from Broadway down the hill to 7th Avenue. Most of the businesses in this strip are larger home furnishing and furniture stores as well as a few art galleries. It is normal for some turnover in terms of retail but the number of empty stores in such a small area makes it look like something a bit more serious is going on. Interestingly enough the Vancouver Sun recently published an article about how the City's rather misguided taxation system is forcing many independent retailers to either move farther afield or to close up shop entirely. You can read the whole story here. 

It seems the Triple Net lease system where retailers not only pay rent but also improvement fees and property taxes is the culprit. With the City's sky rocketing real estate prices the increase in property tax is passed on to the tenant. So in the South Granville area it seems that the point of paying ever increasing taxes has reached a breaking point and many retailers have simply had to close their doors and just move on.

Interestingly the Ian Tan Gallery will soon be moving across the street. According to their Twitter feed their building was sold three different times in only a 12 month period which shows the kind of frenetic activity going on in the commercial real estate market. The Gallery's present location was of course home to the Equinox Gallery for 25 years until they made the big move East back in 2012. At that time the gallery was rumoured to be paying $19,000 a month. Their move also set in motion an exodus of art galleries that left South Granville for cheaper digs in East Vancouver's industrial area in False Creek Flats. There's another great piece about the move done by the Vancouver Sun from 2012.

More empty stores on South Granville

So what does the future hold for this part of South Granville? Hard to tell but as we've seen in other high end retail strips like Fourth Avenue and Robson Street most likely big chain type retailers will probably move in. They do have the financial clout to hang in for the longer haul but make for a much less interesting shopping experience. But business is business and even the big name stores will suffer losses for only so long. Some big players have even given up on Robson Street in recent years because of astronomical rents. In any case it probably means many more small independent retailers will be forced out unless the City takes action which seems unlikely.

12th Street Storefronts

Time to change things up a bit and temporarily leave Vancouver for a quick visit to 12th Street out in New Westminster. This part of New West has a lot of history and has some great old storefronts! Most are located along a strip of the street that stretches from 10th Avenue down the hill to 6th Avenue.

12th Street is actually a continuation of Kingsway which runs all the way into Vancouver. For a time it was the main route down to the US border. Here's some info I found about Kingsway in a City of Vancouver document about the historical significance of the 2400 Motel.

"The route we know as Kingsway has a long history. The Royal Engineers, who were sent from England to keep order during the gold rush beginning in 1858, feared invasion by the expansionist United States. So they laid out a trail running some 13 miles (20 kilometres) from New Westminster, the capital of the then British colony of British Columbia, northwest to Burrard Inlet. The route most likely followed a pre-contact Aboriginal trail. It was originally called Westminster Road"

"Westminster Road (renamed Kingsway in 1913) became the auto route heading south once the Fraser River was bridged at New Westminster in 1904. Kingsway kept growing in importance. The Pattullo Bridge crossing the Fraser River at New Westminster was completed in 1937. From there the King George Highway ran south to the international border at Blaine, Washington. Kingsway became the northernmost section of a road system linking Vancouver down the American coast to Mexico by what became known as the Pacific Highway."

So some of the storefronts along 12th street probably date from the heyday of the automobile. I'm guessing some are from the early 20th century and most probably from the 1920's and 1930's. 12th Street is of course no longer the transportation corridor it once was but the street with its old stores still has lots of charm. Today there are antique stores, restaurants, neighbourhood grocery stores, and some funky thrift stores to name a few.

But New West like most municipalities in the Lower Mainland is growing at a phenomenal rate. This especially true in the lower part of town where condo towers having been springing up like weeds over the last decade. No doubt this will have an effect on the little stores on 12th Street. As property values and taxes rise it becomes economically unviable to have such little buildings on such expensive land. So for the time being this little strip of 12th Street is hanging in there and is well worth a visit!

The Jade Dynasty Restaurant

One of my favourite storefronts in Chinatown is the Jade Dynasty Restaurant at 137 East Pender Street. Located in the 1913 Mah Society Building it's certainly one of the most colourful storefronts around. But that all changed back in early 2016 when the restaurant closed down and the building started an extensive restoration. Here's an old photo of how it looked back in early 2013.

Strangely enough while the building was empty it suffered a fire. A local news channel stated incorrectly that the restaurant "went up in flames" although there was some damage as a result.

When the building first opened in 1913 the storefront was home to Kwong Fong Grocery with the Minglee Rooms upstairs. Here's a link to a photo of the building at Canada's Historic Places.

After doing a bit of searching I found the building got a Heritage Facade Grant from the City back in late 2015. I also found a document online that included lot's of technical and historical information about the old place. Amazingly there was some very detailed info about the storefront and how it had changed over the years.

"The original 1913 wood storefront was altered in about 1928; the storefront above the wood paneled base and below the wood clearestorey windows was replaced with a pressed copper storefront system popular at this time. The storefront was entirely changed out in the late 1960s to an aluminum storefront with a ceramic tile covering over the clearestorey area, which was subsequently replaced in the 1980s with the current aluminum storefront."

So in the summer of 2017 the restoration work was complete and the Jade Dynasty reopened for business. But it looks nothing like the old restaurant!

The restaurant's new look is more in keeping with the building's original design but I can't help thinking that I liked the colours of the old place better!

Glory Foods

I was down in Gastown recently and as I was walking along Carrall Street near Powell I immediately noticed something was missing. Glory Foods was a little corner store that was right next door to another one called Bill's Confectionary. It was always interesting to see two corner stores side by side. But the way Gastown is changing I guess it was only a matter of time before one of them disappeared. Here is an old shot of the store taken back in late 2012.

The store was located in the old Glory Hotel which was a single room occupancy hotel. Technically the building dates from 1909. But according to the folks at Changing Vancouver the hotel was built over two existing stores on Carrall Street. You can read more about the Glory Hotel in their post here. I happened to find an old photo at the Vancouver Archives of the building taken probably in the early 1980's. At that time the space was home to a belt buckle store! It's hard to photograph the building today as trees have since grown up and cover it during the spring and summer months. CVA-790-2146

I did a little searching and found out the hotel was sold back in 2014. It looks like it's also been extensively renovated over the last few years. So I guess the corner store's days were probably numbered. I'm also guessing the folks that lived in the rooms upstairs won't be able to afford to move back either. The area around Maple Tree Square and Gastown in general is going very upscale in terms of retail these days. A new store called Bailey Nelson (Australian) will be opening a new eyewear store once renovations are completed. I'm sure the new store will be nice but you can't help  miss the character of Glory Foods!

Ecco Il Pane Bakery

The old Ecco Il Pane bakery at 238 West 5th Avenue had become one of Vancouver's new urban mysteries. I seem to remember it being open back in the mid 2000's. But somewhere along the line it closed its doors and the building looks like it's been abandoned ever since. I believe Ecco Il Pane was one of the city's first artisan bakeries. It might have been well ahead of its time as artisan everything is in vogue now.

The building is situated in Lower Mount Pleasant which has become an "in demand" destination for the tech and fashion industries. Real estate prices in recent years have skyrocketed forcing many traditional service businesses to relocate elsewhere while the new and hip move in. Just across the street the old Hudson Plating building was recently demolished to make way for a big new office building. So no doubt the old Ecco Il Pane building is worth a small fortune! I'm sure realtors and developers are probably salivating hoping to get their hands on the place. But there it sits looking empty and abandoned and covered in ivy. Could be the space is being used with access from the lane but it all looks very mysterious!

The Blue Eagle Cafe

A little bit of Vancouver's history was lost forever when the old Blue Eagle Cafe was torn down back in 2011. The cafe had a long run and had operated at 130 East Hastings street from 1944 until it was finally closed down by the City in 1999 for drug infractions. Being right in the Downtown Eastside and just a stones throw from Main and Hastings the Blue Eagle was in a bit of a rough stretch of town. But this is nothing new as the neighbourhood has always had its problems going back many decades. Another classic Vancouver cafe the Only Seafoods just down the street would later suffer the same fate in 2009.

The building was of course very old and had three distinct storefronts. These were home to a revolving door of businesses and eateries over the years. Back in 1916 the space at 130 had once been home to the White Lunch which went on to have a few locations around town as well as some great neon signage. A few doors East at 134 was The Golden Gate Cafe which once sported a tall neon sign with a coffee cup at the top. Years later just next door to that at 138 was the infamous Kit Kat Klub. Before the Blue Eagle arrived on the scene this part of Hastings Street was Vancouver's downtown and cafe's were literally everywhere along the street. Today the only one left is the Ovaltine Cafe just East of Main Street. You can see what the street looked like back in 1973 in this great photo by Vancouver photographer Greg Girard.

Sadly the old building that housed the Blue Eagle was neglected for years like many in the Downtown Eastside. For just over a decade the Blue Eagle's classic neon sign sat abandoned with the eagle keeping watch over the sidewalk on Hastings Street. It wasn't until 2010 that the sign was finally acquired by the Museum of Vancouver.

The sign at its new home in 2011

It's really too bad the Blue Eagle is gone as it makes me think the old place could have lived again if it had been renovated in time. Upscale restaurants are now making inroads into the Downtown Eastside and especially into Chinatown. Of course many are calling this gentrification but it's nice to see empty storefronts coming back to life. The Blue Eagle's interior was pretty spiffy and the floor was covered in amazing mosaic tile work. Done up right it would still look fabulous today!

The Western wall was also covered in beautiful tiles no doubt from its days as The White Lunch.

But in Vancouver nothing lasts forever and the deal was finally sealed for the Blue Eagle when the Pantages Theatre up the block at 150 East Hastings was condemned after suffering years of water damage. At one time there were serious plans to restore the theatre to its former glory. But by 2010 all those plans had gone seriously off the rails and all the old buildings had an appointment with the demolition man. As artist Keith McKellar wrote in his 1999 book Neon Eulogy "Everybody knows the room with a mischevious soul. The Blue Eagle Cafe". At least we have the old neon sign to remember the place by!

March 2021 - Just a quick update as I recently discovered an old photo from the 1920's in the VPL's collection on Flickr. The photo is by Stuart Thomson and shows 130 East Hastings when it was the White Lunch. A few doors East at 134 was the Golden Gate Cafe with its big electric sign!

The Lido

If you're new to Vancouver or the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood you might know The Lido as a local drinking hole and performance venue. But prior to it opening back in 2014 the original Lido building was one of Vancouver's most mysterious places. The building at 518 East Broadway dates from 1911 and a big improvement year was 1940. The Lido with its black and green vitrolite tile is first listed in the city directory back in 1942. After doing some initial searching I found a common thread. Many people in Vancouver seem to remember the store, but many couldn't remember when it had actually been open. Here's a photo of the old storefront in 2012.

The Lido had been around for decades but I really hadn't paid much attention to it before. When I first joined Flickr back in 2005 I remember seeing some else's photos of "the store that's never open". So with a new 5 megapixel camera in hand I went over to investigate it myself. Looking through the windows you could see an almost empty store. The shelves were filled with faded yellow "no name" cans and packages that had obviously been there for many years. The middle part of the store had a few empty deli coolers and display cases. There was also a hand written price list of "Lido Specials" taped in the front window. I also noticed an up to date calendar on the wall! During the winter months when I'd been by I had also noticed that there were lights on during the evenings. So despite the store not being open for decades someone was obviously keeping an eye on the place. Here are couple of photos from  back in 2005.

I remember in 2006 the local paper the Vancouver Courier did a story on The Lido and actually named the family that owned it. I guess someone didn't like the publicity because the windows of the store were soon covered over in newspapers! So the days of looking through the windows at The Lido were suddenly over. Sadly the Courier piece has disappeared from their website. So not everything on the internet lasts forever!

It wasn't until a few years later in 2008 when the Vancouver Sun ran a story about The Lido that some of the store's mysteries were finally revealed. Apparently the building's long time owner a Mrs. Rothweiler had passed away and the store had finally been cleaned out. What they found inside was truly amazing! There were 15 cubic yards of rusted salmon and tuna cans. Plus it took 10 truckloads to empty all the junk out of the building. But under a rug someone $950.00 in vintage 50 and 100 dollar bills. Some of the cleanup crew thought they were fake. But the caretaker made the biggest discovery of a bag containing $400,000.00 in 1930's currency stashed in a bedroom closet. In the house next door a suitcase containing old German passports dating from the 1940's and 1950's was also found. Very mysterious indeed! Here's another old photo from 2005.

After doing a bit more searching I found that the Rothweilers would buy up expired cheeses and other canned and packaged goods and then sell them at discounted prices in The Lido. In the early days it looks like they must have had some kind of passport operation going as well. After Mr. Rothweiler passed away it looks like his wife kept the place basically unchanged for many decades until her eventual passing. After the store was finally cleaned out there were a few different shops that opened in the space. I think there was an art gallery and maybe a clothing boutique. Neither lasted very long and I guess the building and house next door sold sometime after 2012. In 2013 the store went through an extensive renovation and opened as The Lido bar that's there today. During the reno the new Lido lost much of it's original charm but they did keep the name and sign! Here's a Street View link of the building today.

ABC Jewellery & Loan

When I first arrived in Vancouver in the late 1980's it seemed like Pawn Shops were everywhere in the city. Granville Street and East Hastings Street seemed to have most of them. But times have changed and today there are probably only about a dozen or so left scattered around town. That's why I figured I'd better get a shot of ABC Jewelllery & Loan at 937 Davie Street when I was downtown back in 2014. I think this is the only pawn shop on Davie Street.

The building located near Burrard Street is quite old and dates from 1925. Over the years it has been home to numerous businesses none of them very notable. For many years during the 1930's there was a listing for a FJ Auterson. In 1940 it was home to The Sample Hat Shop and in 1955 there was a Mrs. GA Brambley Dressmaker.

But there were some interesting places close by! During the 1940's and 1950's a building across the street was home to Paramount Film Services at 960 Davie. Next door at 970 was Warner Brothers Pictures Distributors. But a directory listing for 1940 has an S Thomson Photographer at 916 Davie just down the street. This of course could only be THE Stuart Thomson who was an early professional photographer who captured the city in it's developing years. Thanks to him we have thousands and thousands of images of a Vancouver that largely doesn't exist anymore. You can see more of Thomson's images and find out more about him at his page on the Vancouver Archives website.

Today the block of old buildings at Burrard and Davie are probably living on borrowed time. Most of the block is actually made up of a parking lot. So With the crazy price of real estate in Vancouver these days that simply won't do! I'm sure developers somewhere are planning a much larger building for the corner. This Street View from 2016 confirms the lot has indeed sold but it could be a few more years before the old buildings finally come down making the old pawn shop just another memory.

New York Novelties

New York Novelties is another funky bit of the old Mount Pleasant neighbourhood that's disappeared recently. For many years I used to walk by this store at 2429 Main Street close to Broadway on my way uptown. It was one of those rare places in East Vancouver that didn't have bars in the windows. It was great to look at all the masks and wigs in the window display especially at dusk. Then around 2012 I realized I better start taking some photos of this place!

I'm glad I took some pictures when I did as a "For Lease" sign went up in the window in late 2014. By the spring of 2015 the store was empty and New York Novelties was gone. But it turns out they hadn't gone far as they'd only moved a few blocks away down East Broadway across from the Kingsgate Mall. The new location was probably cheaper rent wise but the window display wasn't nearly as wonderful.

The Main Street store next to the Lee Building is fairly old and got it's start as the People's Fruit Market back in the 1940's. During the 50's times had changed and the space became Finn's Ladies and Men's Wear with Hilker's Dry Goods right next door at 2425. Today the store is home to Our Community Bikes who were forced out of their old space further up Main Street in 2015. If you look outside the store today you can see the name Christie Grants in the tile work. This store must have been there in the 1960's and it looks like it took up both spaces.

Sadly it looks like New York Novelties is no more as they closed up their store on East Broadway at the end of May. I'm not sure what happened. Maybe the new location wasn't so good or they were done in by people shopping online? Whatever the case the way the city is changing it's better to take pictures now and ask questions later as it could all be gone tomorrow!

Reno's Restaurant

Reno's Restaurant at 151 East Broadway on the ground floor of the 1912 Lee Building was a classic piece of the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. It seemed like Reno's had been around for just ages. I'm sure it was already there when I first came to Vancouver in the late 1980's . The decor was a bit dated but when you charge $3.99 for breakfast that's served all day who's to complain. Reno's was a greasy spoon but it was the kind of place where everyone was welcome. If some cheap eats and a bit of people watching were up your alley then Reno's was the place to go. But in November of 2015 Reno's suddenly closed their doors. From what I understand their lease was not renewed so that was the end of another neighbourhood institution.

Being that the Lee Building at Main and Broadway dates from 1912 there were no doubt a few different eateries in the space before it became Reno's. After reading Keith McKellar's book Neon Eulogy I discovered that it had been part of the popular Aristocratic chain starting in 1953. Before that it was Hux Lunch during the 1940's and back in the 1920's it was Purity Lunch which dated as  far back as 1915 in the same location. Incidentally the last Aristocratic restaurant was at Granville and Broadway and closed down in the mid 1990's when the present Chapters bookstore was built.

In the spring of 2016 Fable Diner opened it's doors at 151 East Broadway. The space was totally renovated and it looks bright and modern now. The menu is of course totally up to date and caters to a hipper crowd. But there's even a Reno's Burger on the menu which is a nice touch. I'm sure Fable is doing well with the influx of tech companies coming into Mount Pleasant. It's probably an in demand place for lunch. But it's not quite the same walking along Broadway and not seeing the old Reno's neon sign in the window!

John's Jukes

John's Jukes at 2343 Main Street was one of those shops that gave the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood its funky vibe. They'd been in Mount Pleasant for 35 years and have a great business restoring juke boxes, pinball machines, and various arcade style machines. But back in early February big "For Lease" signs went up in the window foreshadowing more changes coming to the neighbourhood. Now in late May the shop has closed and moved to a new location in Burnaby. To me John's Jukes was one of those interesting stores that was always just there. Every day someone would dutifully bring out an old Wurlitzer juke box for display on Main Street.

I actually didn't have many exterior shots of the store. I was always more interested in capturing some of the colourful juke boxes in the front window that were lit up at night. This is an old shot from back in  2013.

And a look through the front door back in 2015

With skyrocketing real estate prices in Mount Pleasant I guess it's only inevitable more old school businesses will be leaving the area. Since the beginning of the year this will be the 8th shop to have either closed or moved out of the heart of Mount Pleasant. I'm sad to see John's Jukes go but glad they moved on to bigger and better things. Either way it won't be the same walking up Main Street without seeing the old Wurlitzer out front!

Kinetic Electronics

Kinetic Electronics is a quirky little storefront I've had my eye on for some time now. It's located between Glen Drive and Vernon Drive at 1139 East Hastings. It's also been notoriously difficult to photograph as there's always been a car parked out front whenever I've been by. It's taken a few years but I finally got my shot. At first glance the place really doesn't look like much. But it's one of those rare stores with a hidden house in the rear of the property. The house dates from 1905 and 1920 was a big improvement year so that could be when the storefront was built.

Although the front of the store looks a bit dishevelled and there are actually some old dot matrix printer boxes by the window reviews of the place are actually very good! So don't let the funky looks deceive you. The house at the back of the property has obviously seen better days and the front of the roof is now covered up with a tarp. This alley view was taken back in 2012.

This part of Hastings Street is very old but there's not too much left in the area today. But there are still a few old gems to be found. Vancouver also has quite a collection of sidewalk stamps. That is dates and names put into the concrete when the sidewalk was put in. Just down the block at the North East side of Hastings at Vernon is one the oldest ones in the city dating from 1906! You can read more about sidewalk stamps in this piece from Miss604.

Pender Grocery

Another favourite for photographers in Vancouver is Pender Grocery on West Pender Street near Homer. Pender Grocery is one of only two corner stores in all of downtown Vancouver. It's in an old building that dates from 1908. On the corner is Finch's Tea and Coffee House and just around the corner is Lady Madonna's Thrift Store as well as the Jimi Hendrix Shrine which is located downstairs. The upstairs of the building is home to a backpackers hostel. This photo was taken back in the summer of 2013.

I should say Pender Grocery was a corner store. When I was downtown earlier in the year I noticed the little storefront was looking a bit bedraggled and it was also looking very closed. So Pender Grocery is no more. But on the weekend I happened to come across a story in the Vancouver Sun and the old store is being renovated and will eventually reopen as a boutique grocery store.



In the process of renovating the new shopkeepers discovered an old sign on the wall. It was a very old ad for The Vancouver Daily World newspaper. The wall was actually an exterior wall that was part of the building next door. So the sign had been covered up since 1908. You can read all about it this great piece by John Mackie of the Vancouver Sun. The new Pender Grocery also happens to have an Instagram account so you can also view their photos as well. It will be great to see what the new store looks like when it reopens and hopefully I'll be able to get a shot of that old sign too!

B&K Grocery

B&K is another old school corner store in East Vancouver who's glory days have been over for a while now. Tucked away at East 34th Avenue and Nanaimo the building has been around for over a century. It's one of those little places I wasn't really aware of until I found a used copy of Michael Kluckner's book Vanishing Vancouver back in 2008. Today a look with Street View reveals the store was probably open up until around 2010. Since then it's been vacant.



There was some good news back in 2016 as a developer had bought the property with the intention of restoring the store and then adding some townhomes. The building would have got Heritage status and would be a neighbourhood cafe. This model has proven successful with other old corner stores around the city. You can read more about the plan in this article in the Georgia Straight. The City also approved the rezoning of the property last year. But when I was by recently I saw a "For Sale" sign up which seemed a bit odd. So it looks like the original developer has had second thoughts about the project. Here's an old photo from 2009 when the store was still open.

The building apparently dates from 1918 but a realtor's info lists it as being from 1912. Either way the place has been around a very long time and it would be great to see it open again. According to the article in the Georgia Straight it had been B&K Grocery since 1968 and was owned by the Mah family who lived upstairs. Hopefully a new buyer will step up and will move forward with the development including the restoration of the old store!

Looking through the front window of the store back in 2012

March 2021 - I just thought I better post an update as work began in early 2020 on the redevelopment of the store and property. I think a new owner took over as the store and lot had essentially been abandoned for many years. The project is now called Century House and it looks like the townhouses are nearing completion!