Description of Historic Place

The Ferguson Block is comprised of a two storey masonry commercial structure in the Victorian Italianate style, with a one storey retail extension to the rear. It is located on Maple Tree Square at the irregular intersection of Alexander, Powell, Water and Carrall Streets in the historic district of Gastown. The Ferguson Block is one of the oldest buildings in Vancouver located on its original site.

Heritage Value

Gastown is the historic core of Vancouver, and is the city's earliest, most historic area of commercial buildings and warehouses. The Gastown historic district retains a consistent and distinctive built form that is a manifestation of successive economic waves that followed the devastation of the Great Fire in 1886, the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1887, the Klondike Gold Rush and the western Canadian boom that occurred prior to the First World War. The area is recognized as the birthplace of Vancouver, and was pivotal in the first twenty-five years of the city's history and represents a formative period in Canada's economic development.

The heritage value of the Ferguson Block is its crucial position in the social and architectural fabric of historic Gastown. It is one of the oldest buildings in Vancouver and is located on one of the most prominent corners of Maple Tree Square, the city's first gathering space in the core of Gastown, and illustrates the start of the transformation of Vancouver from a remote outpost into western Canada's largest centre of commercial activity. This building, and the Byrnes Block located across the street, are likely the oldest extant buildings in Vancouver still standing at their original location; only the relocated Hastings Mill Museum building is known to predate them. This building also demonstrates one of the first local uses of the Victorian Italianate style.

The Ferguson Block is representative of the importance of Gastown as the trans-shipment point between the terminus of the railway and Pacific shipping routes, and the consequent expansion of Vancouver into western Canada's predominant commercial centre in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The block's construction in several stages is representative of Gastown's sporadic building booms and the speculative nature of development, typical of the first development of emerging west coast frontier communities. The first section was built in 1886-87, prior to the arrival of the railway; a one storey addition to the rear, housing three commercial storefronts, and a two storey addition to the side had occurred by 1889. Building materials for the first part of the structure, including prefabricated elements, would have arrived by ship. The structure was expanded as the settlement grew, and as materials became more readily available after the arrival of the railway.

The Ferguson Block is significant for its association with its architect, W.T. Whiteway (1856-1940). 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. The Ferguson Block marks his earliest commission in Vancouver; an unusual feature is the inscription of his name on the cornerstone. His later designs in the area include the original part of the Woodward's Department Store at Hastings and Abbott Streets (1903), the Kelly, Douglas warehouse on Water Street (1905) and the World (Sun) Tower at Beatty and Pender Streets, once the tallest commercial building in the British Empire (1912).

It is also significant for its association with Vancouver pioneer land developer Alfred Graham Ferguson, who built a series of buildings in the area, all known as the Ferguson Block when completed. Completed by early 1887, the building was sold almost immediately to Hugh Whitmore Chamberlain, and renamed the Chamberlain Block. Chamberlain was responsible for the 1889 additions to the side and rear that resulted in the present form of the building.

Source: City of Vancouver, Heritage Planning Street Files

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Ferguson Block include:
- spatial relationship to other late Victorian and Edwardian era commercial buildings
- location, adjacent to Maple Tree Square, in close proximity to the waterfront of Burrard Inlet and the Canadian Pacific Railway yard
- siting on the property lines, with no setbacks
- low scale, two storey, flat-roofed massing at front with a rectangular plan with rear extension, with a one storey flat-roofed addition to the rear that fronts onto Powell Street and extends to the alley
- large rectangular storefront windows on the ground floor
- early use of masonry and prefabricated elements, such as cast iron columns and pressed metal cornices
- elements of the Victorian Italianate style, such as the segmental arched windows on the second floor, elaborate window hoods and the projecting sheet metal cornice with alternating large and small eave brackets with panel detailing between
- double-hung 1-over-1 wood-sash windows, with segmental arched top sash, on the second floor
- high quality materials and workmanship, such as the vermiculated parging over brickwork on the ground floor quoins and incised detail on the second floor window hoods
- break-formed sheet metal cornice between ground and upper storeys
- cornerstone at the junction of Carrall and Powell Streets with inscription, 'Whiteway Arct'