Description of Historic Place

The Shamrock Hotel is a three-storey glazed brick Edwardian commercial building located in the 600 block of East Hastings Street in Vancouver, at the eastern end of the downtown eastside corridor.

Heritage Value

The value of the Shamrock Hotel lies in the historic relationship between this area and the economy of early Vancouver, and as a mixed-use area. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, this area of Vancouver was the centre of commerce and industry.

Built by contractor D. McCullam in 1912 to a design by architect (and owner) W. A. Urquhart, the building is an apartment block with a grocery store in the commercial frontage at street level. Its function, modest scale and ornamentation are typical of early Edwardian commercial structures at the east end of the Hastings Street corridor. The original tenant was Thomas W. Wood, grocer, and from 1913-1920 it also housed the Napier Rooms. In 1937 it became the Shamrock Hotel, and retains that name to the present day. In the heyday of the Hastings Street corridor, the hotel would have been considered second-run accommodation even by loggers’ standards, who generally preferred lodging in somewhat more upscale quarters until their money ran out. Moving east along Hastings Street, the larger, generally taller and more opulent buildings closer to the centre of commercial and industrial activity, give way to smaller, more modest commercial and residential structures.

The value lies in its modest architecture; the building was built both to provide housing and retail goods for a largely-male population of resource industry workers and commercial travelers, and was not intended as a masterpiece of architectural design. Its design and construction are significant, as they reflect the transition from Victorian styles to the cleaner, more restrained and functional Edwardian style. Of interest are the glass prisms in the storefront sidewalk, indicating the former presence of a basement level access. This is one of a pair of adjacent buildings with glazed brick and cornice or parapet over ground floor shops. Although built at different times, there are considerable stylistic similarities: 633 East Hastings Street is a one-storey shop only while its neighbour at 635 East Hastings Street has two floors of hotel accommodation above.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Shamrock Hotel include:
- rectangular form and massing at a modest scale
- its functional relationship to other buildings in the neighbourhood and the area
- built to property line with no setbacks
- the architectural similarities between this building and its neighbour at 633 East Hastings Street
- external characteristics of the Edwardian style including symmetrical design, glazed brick construction, pattern of fenestration, mosaic tile entry, and large overhanging classical cornice
- main floor storefront