Description of Historic Place

The Horne Block at 313 Cambie Street in Vancouver's historic district of Gastown, is a three-storey brick Victorian Italianate commercial structure.

Heritage Value

The Horne Block is associated with Gastown’s history as a mixed-use district. When Vancouver became the entrepot between the Canadian Pacific Railway and trans-Pacific shipping in 1887, Gastown was its hub. The heritage value of the Horne Block lies in the historic relationship between this area and the economy of early Vancouver. The Klondike gold rush of 1898-1900 heralded a boom that lasted with minor interruptions until the First World War.

Built in 1890 to a design by Nobel Stonestreet Hoffar, the Horne Block (named for J. W. Horne, M.P.P.) represents the continuation of the commercial development of the major north-south corridor of Cambie Street from Gastown toward Hastings Street. J.W. Horne, a promoter of real estate and street railways, founded the Vancouver Loan, Trust, Savings and Guarantee Company and was credited with bringing $1.5 million in investment money to Vancouver from Brandon, Manitoba. He was an alderman in 1889-90 and, with David Oppenheimer, was responsible for municipalizing the Vancouver Water Works. He was also a MLA (1890-94). Among several significant tenants were the Bank of North America (1892), Rand Bros. Real Estate (1896) and G.A. Roedde, bookbinder (1896). In addition, Atlen H. Towle, architect of the First Presbyterian Church (1894) at East Hastings and Gore Avenue, had premises here. Between 1910 and 1925, several publishing and lithography firms had their offices here, no doubt due to the proximity of the Province and Sun newspaper buildings. From the 1930s to the 1950s book stores, clothing retailers, and cleaners were the most common businesses.

There is also value in the architectural design. The ground floor facade is recessed behind cast-iron columns, and shops are reached by staircases bridging the open area below street level, a common feature of British streetscapes, but unusual in Vancouver. The upper storeys feature elongated brick arches spanning pairs of windows and integrated into the brickwork. The overall massing of this masonry building is important in its relationship to the much higher Dominion Building to the south and the lower building to the north, illustrating the 'sawtooth' skyline so prevalent in the area.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Horne Block include:
- the relationship between this building and its neighbours within the Gastown historic district
- relationship to the higher Dominion Building to the south and the lower building to the north
- its siting on the property line, with no setbacks
- form, scale and massing
- Victorian Italianate architectural features, including the recessed ground floor retail areas, the exposed cast iron columns supporting the second and third floor levels, the open basement retail frontage, the decorative arches and dentils in the brickwork, the semi-circular-headed windows of the third storey
- continued use of lower floor for retail stores