Description of Historic Place

The Dunn Block is a three storey, plus lower level and attic, masonry commercial building at the intersection of Alexander, Carrall, Water and Powell Streets in the historic district of Gastown. It is located on the northeast corner of Maple Tree Square, Vancouver's first and most historic public space.

Heritage Value

Gastown is the historic core of Vancouver, and is the city's earliest, most historic area of commercial buildings and warehouses. The Dunn Block is representative of the importance of Gastown as the trans-shipment point between the terminus of the railway and Pacific shipping routes, and the consequent expansion of Vancouver into western Canada's predominant commercial centre in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As Vancouver prospered, substantial warehouses were built on piles on infilled water lots between Water Street and the Canadian Pacific Railway trestle. The Dunn Block was sited on the main intersection of the original settlement of Gastown, at the foot of the city's first wharf, and fronting onto the main yard of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The massive cubic form, high density, large clear-span floor-plate and notable height of this structure are a clear indication of the extent and prosperity of wholesale trade during this period.

Built in 1899-1900, the Dunn Block is valued for its association with the original owner, Thomas Dunn, a city councillor on the first Vancouver City Council and a leading pioneer businessman. It was built as a hardware and ship chandlery warehouse, and housed the offices of the Union Steamship Company for several decades. Dunn, who had many business interests, suffered financial reversals when the Klondike Gold Rush fizzled, and soon sold this building to Boyd, Burns and Company Ltd., dealers in engineering and mill supplies.

The Dunn Block is valued for its handsome Romanesque Revival facade, designed by Noble Stonestreet Hoffar (1843-1907). One of Vancouver's first architects, Hoffar made a considerable contribution to the evolution of the city between 1886 and the mid 1890s with his design and construction of many of the city's largest and most substantial structures. In 1907-08, a four storey addition was constructed to the east of the building, designed by architects Parr and Fee. Progressive in their use of evolving technology, the firm of John Edmeston Parr (1856-1923) and Thomas A. Fee (1860-1929) were successful and prolific architects who had a profound effect on the look of Edwardian Vancouver. The addition displays a simplified but sympathetic response to the older building, and is characterized by the innovative use of continuous ribbon windows.

The main floor also contains handsome oak store fittings dating from c.1897, designed by prominent local architect Thomas Hooper. This woodwork was originally installed in the E.A. Morris Tobacconist shop on Hastings Street, and moved here after a fire in 1982.

Source: City of Vancouver, Heritage Planning Street Files

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Dunn Block include:
- location adjacent to Maple Tree Square, in close proximity to the waterfront of Burrard Inlet and the Canadian Pacific Railway yard
- spatial relationship to other late Victorian and Edwardian era commercial buildings
- siting on the property lines, with no setbacks
- cubic form and prominent scale, three-and-one-half storey height with lower level, and flat roof
- articulated massing, including a subsidiary block at rear facing the water and the 1907-08 addition to east
- masonry construction: fine patterned red brickwork and corbelled cornice on the main block with continuous granite sill and lintel courses; massive sandstone columns at the ground floor; granite rubble foundations; continuous monolithic granite storefront thresholds; red brick walls and granite sills and lintels on the subsidiary block; and red brick facades on the 1907-08 addition
- fenestration, including: double-assembly double-hung 1-over-1 wood-sash windows with transoms on the main block, with semi-circular wood-sash windows at the attic level; double-hung 1-over-1wood-sash windows on the subsidiary block; and banks of quintuple assembly double-hung 1-over-1 wood-sash windows with transoms on the front facade of the 1907-08 addition
- cast iron columns at the storefront level, with maker's mark 'Ross and Howard, Vancouver'
- sheet metal cornices above storefronts and at parapet
- heavy timber frame internal structure with cast iron columns
- interior features such as wooden floors and exposed wooden ceilings
- interior features from the E.A. Morris Tobacconist shop including intricate oak store fittings and beveled and leaded glass and mirrors