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!
