Hotel Vancouver

The Hotel Vancouver (branded currently as the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver) is a hotel located on West Georgia Street at Burrard Street, in the heart of Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.

History

Constructed at 111 metres (17 stories) high, its architects were John S. Archibald and John Schofield. It became part of the Canadian Pacific Hotels chain after that company purchased CN Hotels in 1988. CP Hotels was later purchased by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

This building is the third hotel to be named "Hotel Vancouver". The second Hotel Vancouver, this building's predecessor a block away, was built in 1916, and became a troop barracks during the Second World War, and was finally torn down in 1949 to fulfill a commitment made by the city with the developers of the third Hotel Vancouver to demolish it - as the new hotel's design was not as lavish and impressive, and the older hotel was perceived to be too much of a potential rival. The second hotel was in a grand Italianate revival style, and was considered one of the great hotels of the British Empire. In the time of this building the names of the Spanish Grill (a cafe-restaurant), the Panorama Roof (and dine-and-dance show club), the Timber Club (a drinking lounge), the Pacific Empire Ballroom, and the Red Barrel (a beer parlour) became famous as part of the city's social whirl (names that are used by facilities in the third Hotel Vancouver). It had several ballrooms and lounges, as well as an adjacent opera house cum cinema (originally the Orpheum, later restyled the Lyric), and all the bathrooms were fitted with marble sinks and gold-plate faucetry.

Hotel Vancouver (1916)

The Hotel Vancouver, the second of three by that name, was a 15 story (77m) Italian Renaissance style hotel built in 1916 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The architect was Francis S. Swales.

The hotel passed onto the Canadian National Railway, which demolished the building in 1949. The third Hotel Vancouver, built in 1937 two blocks away, is still operating today.

Famous Guests

Many famous people stayed at this hotel, including Winston Churchill, Sarah Bernhardt, Babe Ruth, Ethel Barrymore, and Anna Pavlova. It was also much loved by the people of Vancouver, who made its rooftop dining room and dance floor, the Panorama Roof, a favourite place for a night out.

Structure and Location

The structure was one of the triumvirate of large, ornate buildings which anchored the centre of town at Georgia and Granville streets: the Hudson Bay Store, Birks Building, and Hotel Vancouver. Only the Hudson Bay store remains of those three jewels of the city's golden age of Edwardian architecture. Also attached to the hotel and built by the CPR was the Vancouver Opera House, later an Orpheum theatre, the city's first. It had become the Lyric Theatre by the time it was demolished to make way for the construction of Pacific Centre.

Vancouver

Vancouver (ⁱ/væŋˈkuːvər/ or /vænˈkuːvər/) officially the City of Vancouver, is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada.

The 2011 census recorded 603,502 people in the city, making it the eighth largest Canadian municipality. The Greater Vancouver area of around 2.4 million inhabitants is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country, the second largest city on the United States–Canada border, and the most populous in Western Canada. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada; 52% of its residents have a first language other than English. Vancouver is classed as a Beta global city. The City of Vancouver encompasses a land area of about 114 square kilometres, giving it a population density of about 5,249 people per square kilometre (13,590 per square mile). Vancouver is the most densely populated Canadian municipality, and the fourth most densely populated city with over 250,000 residents in North America, behind New York City, San Francisco, and Mexico City.

Vancouver (steamboat)

Vancouver was a steam-run bark built and operated by the Hudson's Bay Company to serve on the route between London, England and Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island in what is now the province of British Columbia, Canada. Other vessels committed to the route were Columbia and Cowlitz, but Vancouver was the first of the three to enter Victoria harbour, and the first vessel to sail directly from England to enter that port, in 1845. Other vessels in the company's service were Nereid and Cadboro.

Vancouver was 324 tons burthen, and had six guns and a crew of 24 men.

See also

References

Pacific Central Station

Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is a railway station which acts as the western terminus of Via Rail's cross-country The Canadian to Toronto and the northern terminus of Amtrak’s Cascades to Seattle and Portland.

Pacific Central Station is adjacent to the Vancouver SkyTrain Main Street – Science World Station. Westbound trains go into downtown near hotels, businesses and other attractions. End of the line is at Waterfront Station (formerly the Canadian Pacific station), offering connections to the Seabus, West Coast Express commuter trains and other bus lines. Eastbound locals head into the suburbs, such as Burnaby and New Westminster.

The station also provides intercity coach service, being the head office and bus depot of Pacific Coach Lines and the main Vancouver terminal for Greyhound Canada. Also Malaspina bus, which serves the Sunshine Coast communities of Gibsons, Sechelt and Powell River. The station is wheelchair-accessible and is staffed with full Via services.