Description of Historic Place

The Macdonald Building is two-storey brick commercial building facing Pandora Avenue at the corner of Fan Tan Alley; the Lim Ging Building is a later extension to the north that fronts onto Fan Tan Alley. The two buildings are located in the heart of Victoria’s Chinatown National Historic Site. The Pandora Avenue façade of the Macdonald Building is completely rebuilt, but the form, scale and brick side walls remain intact. The Lim Ging Building is one of nine interconnected buildings and additions with front façades on Fan Tan Alley, a narrow mid-block passageway that links Pandora Avenue to Fisgard Street.

Heritage Value

The Macdonald Building and the Lim Ging Building are valued as significant contributing resources to an historic grouping of structures that marks the southern edge of Victoria's Chinatown. This block of Pandora Avenue originally faced the Johnson Street ravine, a swamp that marked the boundary between the European-settled business area to the south and Chinatown to the north, and illustrated a physical and cultural divide in the early city. During the early 1880s, the wooden shacks on the north side of the ravine were replaced with brick commercial blocks to house Chinese businesses, prompted by a dramatic increase in the Chinese population. These merchants set up much-needed small shops, such as laundries, grocery stores, medicine shops and restaurants, in buildings that were often developed and owned by European pioneers.

The Macdonald Building was constructed in 1881 by former Hudson’s Bay Company employee, William John Macdonald, who was to became a Senator. It was leased to Chinese merchants until it was sold in 1908 to Lim Bang, Wong Yock and Wong Tong. In 1920, Lim Ging and Lee Ward added a brick-clad commercial building with tenements above on the northern half of the lot.

Seventy-three metres long and between one and two metres wide and enclosed by nine interconnected buildings and additions, Fan Tan Alley’s significance lies in the duality of its architecture and cultural landscape. The Lim Ging Building was part of the final phase of infill in historic Fan Tan Alley. On each block, street façades link together, forming a wall that shields interior spaces and narrow alleyways between and through buildings are linked to central courtyards, which were the hidden location of tenements, opium dens, theatres and gambling houses. This configuration allowed the Chinese community to follow traditional religion, kinship and economic practices, while projecting the image of assimilation to Western society. The buildings of Fan Tan Alley are simple, utilitarian structures, which served as a private enclave and refuge for Chinese pioneers.

Western architects were hired to design buildings throughout Chinatown, as the Chinese were shunned as professionals in the building trades. Charles Elwood Watkins (1875-1942), a prolific Victoria architect, designed the Lim Ging Building. In addition to commercial, institutional and residential projects elsewhere, Watkins had a number of Chinese clients in Chinatown.

Source: City of Victoria Planning and Development Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character the Macdonald Building include its:
- mid-block location on Pandora Avenue, part of a grouping of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century masonry buildings in Victoria's Chinatown National Historic Site
- siting on the property lines, with no setbacks
- commercial form, scale and massing as expressed by its two-storey height, symmetrical rectangular plan and flat roof
- masonry construction, including original brick side walls and stone foundations that define the eastern side of Fan Tan Alley
- windows such as two-over-two double-hung wooden-sash windows on the second floor

Key elements that define the heritage character the Lim Ging Building include its:
- location on Fan Tan Alley, part of a grouping of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century historic masonry buildings in Victoria's Chinatown National Historic Site
- siting on the property lines, with no setbacks
- continuous commercial and residential use
- commercial form, scale and massing as expressed by its two-storey height, rectangular plan, flat roof, retail storefronts facing Fan Tan Alley and upper-floor tenements
- masonry construction including red brick walls with red mortar and continuous concrete sills and lintels
- vernacular detailing such as brick piers, corbelled brick coursing above the upper storey windows, wooden storefronts and square upper floor window openings
- windows such as one-over-one double-hung wooden-sash windows on the second floor