Description du lieu patrimonial

The Royal Bank of Canada building is home to the RBC Financial Group at 400 Main Street, in the heart of Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Built in three stages between the 1900s and the 1970s, it comprises Lots 1-3, Block 11, DL 196.

Valeur patrimoniale

The Royal Bank of Canada building has heritage value as a representative example of a classical bank built in the first decade of the twentieth century, for being a relatively early example in Vancouver of a reinforced concrete structural frame, as a landmark on the key intersection of Main and Hastings Streets, and for having accommodated a leading financial institution for nearly a century.

Built around 1907 as the East End Branch of the Royal Bank of Canada, the historic place has heritage value as a good example of Beaux-Arts Classicism, continuing the practice introduced earlier in that decade of using classical styles to express the stability of financial institutions. It also has value for its early use of reinforced concrete for the structural frame - a practice introduced in Vancouver shortly before that time - in this case, faced with ashlar stonework.

There is additional value in the building's having been a long-time landmark at the key corner of Main Street (then Westminster Avenue) and Hastings Street, the heart of downtown during Vancouver's first generation. The Carnegie Public Library stood across the street at 400 Main Street and City Hall was located immediately south of the Library. The Royal Bank was just then establishing its place in British Columbia, and so this strategic location was key to its growth. By calling this its 'East End Branch', the Bank acknowledged the shift of business power from Main Street to Granville Street, which was then dominated by central Canadian interests.

The building has further value for having been the premises of the Royal Bank of Canada (now RBC Financial Group) at this strategic corner for more than a century. The Merchants Bank of Canada, as it was named before 1901, was located at 414 Main Street by 1898. The Royal Bank of Canada built its new masonry building around 1907 and continued to expand in response to growing business. The building was extended east along Hastings Street to the lane in 1947, to designs by the Royal Bank's Montreal-based former chief architect, S.G. Davenport; and an addition was built to the south along Main Street (on the site of the former Merchants Bank) in 1975.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Éléments caractéristiques

The character-defining elements of the Royal Bank of Canada building include:
- Classical columns along Main Street, including the Ionic capitals, bases, and other details
- Pilasters along Hastings Street, including their capitals and other details
- Continuous entablature above the columns, which includes a frieze and cornice
- Arched ground-floor window surrounds and rectangular second-floor window surrounds, including the stone details
- Cut ashlar stone on both principal elevations