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Yale Hotel, 1300 Granville St |
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Yale
Hotel owner strikes heritage deal with city Glen
Korstrom see Cecil Hotel
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Vancouver blues club
closes for $1.5M makeover
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 Image source: City of Vancouver archives - Circa 1944  |
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Heritage
Value The Yale Hotel is significant as one of the oldest surviving buildings in Vancouver and for its association with the development of Yaletown. Construction of the building began in 1888 and was completed in 1889. Constructed as the Colonial Hotel, it was among a very small number of structures to be built on Granville Street during Vancouver's formative years. Yaletown was the working class neighbourhood populated by workers who moved to Vancouver in the 1880s to service and build the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The Colonial Hotel provided low-priced accommodation for CPR workers and became known as the centre of the notorious Yaletown nightlife. The hotel was also built in association with the construction of the first Granville Street Bridge in 1889, and served travellers between Vancouver and Richmond. The associative value of the Yale Hotel lies in its construction by its original owner, real estate developer James Wellington Horne (1853-1923), who owned more land in the downtown area than any single other person, second only to the CPR. By 1890, only four years after his arrival in Vancouver, Horne had built major brick blocks on most of Vancouver's principal streets. Horne held public office in 1888-90 as a city alderman, and from 1890 to 1894 held a seat in the provincial legislature. The Yale Hotel is additionally valued for its handsome Second Empire architecture, designed by Noble Stonestreet Hoffar (1843-1907). One of Vancouver’s first architects, Hoffar made a considerable contribution to the evolution of the city between 1886 and the mid 1890s with his design and construction of many of the city's largest and most substantial structures. The Yale Hotel is a simplified example of Second Empire architecture, which typifies the increasingly elaborate and monumental appearance of architecture towards the end of the nineteenth century. In Eastern Canada and the United States, the mansard roof was closely associated with hotel accommodation; as Hoffar was American-born, he would have been familiar with the popular styles in Eastern Canada and the United States. The hotel is also associated with architect W.T. Whiteway (1856-1940), who was commissioned to design the addition to the east in 1909. Whiteway arrived in Vancouver at the time of the Great Fire and worked in Vancouver from 1886-1887, then followed other building booms in the United States and Canada before returning to Vancouver, where he became one of the leading local architects. Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program Character-Defining
Elements - construction
to the front and side property lines with no setback |
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info from the Yale's website, www.yalehotel.ca The Yale Hotel began in the mid 1880's as a CPR bunkhouse where workers relaxed after clearing land for the new community of Vancouver. On June 13, 1886 an unusually strong blast of wind set fire raging through the city. In less than 45 minutes 1,000 wooden structures were destroyed. The Yale, separated by bush from the main area of Vancouver, was one of the few that survived. Soon after that dramatic event, the Yale became a popular gathering place for the community. The building was refurbished and by 1889 was renamed the Colonial Hotel. It served miners, loggers, fishermen and CPR workers who trudged up an Indian trail in the woods from False Creek. There was a stable below the street level for the occasional carriage trade. By night, the hotel became a haunt for the workers and their friends. Yaletown had a reputation for wild nightlife, and the activity at the Colonial was supposedly the wildest. The hotel was named the Yale again in 1911. Meanwhile, deep in the southern United States, the black culture gave birth to the blues. Rhythm and blues is perceived in many ways. Sometimes glamorous, sometimes heart-wrenching, the blues wound its way through the history of America and emerged as a Canadian tradition at the Yale. Today, after more than two decades of this tradition, the Yale is the focal point for rhythm and blues in Western Canada. The icons of traditional blues, as well as new talent, come by to play and jam. Pop stars and screen personalities frequent the Yale to hear their R&B idols. As well, the Yale recently built its own precision engineered recording studio. In the basement, where stable boys used to groom the horses, the Yale today records live performances to promote up-and-coming local blues players and to raise funds for charities. Hundreds
of legendary blues performers have graced the stage at the Yale.
Here is a small sample, selected by staff as their top twenty all-time
favourites: Some
other names of note who have played or jammed at the Yale: And
then there's the stars who come by to hang out and listen: |
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The
Rize Alliance Properties owner, who bought the Yale Hotel for
approximately $10 million in mid-2006 and the Cecil Hotel for
“millions” of dollars soon afterward, has reached a tentative
agreement with City of Vancouver planners for his 20,000-square-foot
Granville Street site at the north end of the Granville Bridge.
Lin’s
tentative agreement with city staff requires that he retain and
upgrade 44 subsidized housing rooms at the Yale that have single-room
occupancy (SRO) zoning. Lin will give those rooms to the city
when his proposed project is complete. In exchange, he expects
the city to allow him to build a 165,000-square-foot tower. Current
density rules provide for a maximum 100,000-square-foot tower.
All photos copyright ©
Christian Dahlberg except where stated otherwise. All rights reserved.
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