Description of Historic Place

The historic site at 340 Cambie Street is a four-storey brick and stone Edwardian style commercial building in the 300 block of Cambie Street just north of Hastings Street, within the historic district of Gastown in Vancouver.

Heritage Value

340 Cambie Street 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 Commercial Hotel 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. A continuation of the commercial development of the major north-south corridor of Cambie Street from Gastown, this commercial building, designed as a hotel, is a fine example of the transition from the American Richardsonian Romanesque style to Edwardian Commercial. It also reflects the change in public taste from the highly decorated facades of the Victorian period to the more refined ornamentation of the Edwardian era.

Built ca. 1898, the Commercial Hotel would have been intended for commercial travellers and tourists. It was ideally placed to accommodate those who arrived by either rail or steamer. In later years, it was also convenient for those who arrived by streetcar from the outlying areas. It is part of a cluster of buildings of similar age and materials which together illustrate the importance of the influx of wealth to Vancouver around the turn of the twentieth century, when many substantial masonry and stone buildings were erected close to the then commercial core. It forms an important end to the Flack Block located at the corner of Hastings and Cambie Streets, built from the proceeds of the Klondike Gold Rush.

The building has always been a hotel with ancillary services, including baths, a tobacco outlet, a barber shop and a cafe. In 1976, the name was changed to the El Cid Hotel with a Spanish decorating scheme; the name was changed again in 1987 to the Stadium Inn. The original entrance to the hotel is now occupied by a beer parlour and the new entry is through what was until the early 1990s the tiny Rose Brothers barber shop.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage character of the 340 Cambie Street is defined through the following elements:
- the relationship between this building and its neighbours within the Gastown historic district
- its siting on the property line, with no setbacks
- form, scale and massing
- Richardsonian Romanesque features including: the heavily-arched and recessed ground floor entry, deep piers, spandrels with diagonal brick pattern, pattern of fenestration, detailed moulded brickwork on the facade, and rusticated stone coursing
- continued use as a hotel