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.