Description of Historic Place

314-316 West Cordova Street is a two-storey late Victorian commercial building in Vancouver's historic Gastown district.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of 314-316 West Cordova Street lies in its relationship with the adjacent buildings and their historic relationship between this area and the economy of early Vancouver. It is associated with Gastown's history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as a mixed-use district and the centre for Vancouver's trade and manufacturing. Together they present a cohesive streetscape of streetfront retail.

This mixed-use building was built in 1905. Early tenants included the Simcoe Rooming House catering to the transient population, a 'twine goods' shop was next door and later real estate agents moved in. By 1913, the building was vacant, a victim of the economic crash. A series of tenants followed and retail use continues to today. When the mainstream shopping area moved to the south and east on the former Canadian Pacific Railway lands, suppliers serving a lower-end clientele moved in.

The relatively unadorned two-storey facade is common in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century commercial structures and presents a contrast to the larger buildings with their highly decorated facades to the east on Hastings Street. It also illustrates the evolving public taste in architecture, serving as a bridge from the extensive ornamentation of the early Victorian era to a more restrained decoration of the Edwardian which was to follow.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of 314-316 West Cordova Street include:
- modest form, scale and massing
- the functional relationship between this building and its neighbours within the Gastown historic district
- its siting on the property line, with no setbacks
- late Victorian details including stepped parapet, rusticated stone lintel above second level windows, pattern of fenestration including the splayed bays on the second storey, the lower spandrel band which lines up with that of its neighbour at 310 West Cordova Street, splayed recessed shop entry with display windows on either side, all offset to provide access to second floor level
- continued use of ground floor for retail shops