Description of Historic Place

The Royal Bank of Canada, West Hastings Branch, is a two-storey plus lower level Classically-influenced masonry structure, clad with carved sandstone on its two main facades and articulated with arched windows and pilasters. It is located at the southwest corner of West Hastings and Homer Streets, within the context of other commercial buildings of similar age and scale.

Heritage Value

The Royal Bank of Canada, West Hastings Branch, is significant as an important component of the early retail and commercial fabric that made West Hastings Streets one of the most prominent commercial streets in early Vancouver. The southward shift of commercial activities that started during the Klondike era provided the stimulation for major commercial development along West Hastings Street. This location was within close proximity to regional transportation facilities and the booming commerce of Gastown. Several major banks, notably conservative in comparison to other businesses, located their headquarters along Hastings Street after the commercial strip was well established. Opened in 1903, the prosperity and rapid growth of Vancouver and the subsequent success of the Royal Bank is evident by the 1909 renovation that nearly doubled the size of this structure.

Further, this building is of heritage value as the Vancouver headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada from 1903 until 1931. It incorporated the most modern security features, including a massive reinforced concrete vault with walls 0.6m thick and a steel door with geared combination locking mechanisms, as well as several other secondary vaults. Engineering and structural innovations included reinforced concrete foundations, basement columns, ground floor beams and floor deck, qualifying the building as thoroughly modern and one of the first large-scale uses of poured concrete in the city. After the Royal Bank's new headquarters were completed at the corner of Hastings and Granville Streets, this served as a local branch until 1981, demonstrating the continued growth of the city and the westward shift of the business district.

This building is of heritage value as the first classically inspired bank in Vancouver. It marked the point when local financial institutions started to abandon Victorian eclecticism and embrace the Classical Revival style as symbolic of their conservatism, stability and security. The tripartite articulation, with a solid base, giant pilasters, continuous cornice and somber detailing enhance the sense of monumentality and repose. The Royal Bank was a significant and innovative design by local architects Dalton and Eveleigh, who were instrumental in the development of early Vancouver. W.T. Dalton (1854-1931) and S.M. Eveleigh (1870-1947) were highly regarded for the quality of design of commercial and institutional buildings. The original interior decoration was carried out in an Art Nouveau style by James Bloomfield (1860-1951), one of British Columbia's most notable early artists and designers. Significantly, the building was developed and constructed by Vancouver pioneer, Jonathan Rogers, who built several early branches for the Royal Bank, and a number of other buildings in the area, including the adjacent structure to the west.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Royal Bank of Canada include its:
- siting in an area of historic commercial buildings on Hastings Street
- contribution to the streetscape as part of an unbroken streetwall with continuous retail storefronts
- siting on the property lines, with no setbacks
- monumental and imposing commercial form, scale and massing, as expressed by its two-storey (plus basement) height, flat roof, continuous horizontal parapet, rectangular plan and single entry
- masonry construction, as expressed by: the rough-dressed granite foundation, granite front steps, rough-dressed sandstone facade with smooth-dressed pilasters, common red brick rear and side walls, and concrete internal structure
- Classical Revival influence as evident in the tripartite facade articulation, continuous projecting cornice, engaged pilasters, bands of running Greek key ornament, and entablature with egg-and-dart moulding
- fenestration: large ground floor rectangular window openings, original wooden-sash, semicircular upper-level window openings with decorated mullions, some original upper level double-hung one-over-one wooden-sash windows; and segmental arched window openings on the rear elevation
- exterior features, such as the front elevation chambers entrance demarked with relief lettering, ‘Royal Bank of Canada’ in bas-relief on front elevation entablature, and wrought iron security bars over basement windows
- surviving interior elements including three bank vaults with heavy, steel and brass, geared combination doors (J. and J. Taylor, Toronto) and remnants of the original black and yellow glass mosaic tile banking hall floor