Description of Historic Place

The McIntosh Block is a three-storey late Victorian Italianate commercial structure on West Cordova Street in the historic Gastown district of Vancouver. It is part of an important historic commercial streetscape, as it is the most westerly of three buildings owned by the same business.

Heritage Value

The McIntosh Block is generally associated with Gastown’s history as a mixed-use district. When the City of Vancouver became the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the eastern terminus for trans-Pacific shipment of goods in 1887, the hub of this international and intercontinental commercial activity was Gastown. This and other similar commercial complexes in the area provided much-needed goods and services to the then burgeoning population, both in the area and Vancouver-wide.

The value of this building is as a reminder of the period when Cordova Street was a major retail strip. It is also significant in its continued role as the anchor of a retail chain - Army & Navy Department Stores - that has survived and adapted through various economic cycles in the area. Its value also lies in its relation to adjacent buildings on the street and in the vicinity.

The McIntosh Block, an unpretentious late-Victorian structure, was built in 1890 for the primary purpose of retailing basic goods and food products, and has evolved through several variations of this function until the present day. Starting its days as the Mainland Meat Market, home of Hayes and McIntosh, butchers, part of a larger chain of butchers in Vancouver, the business was subsequently taken over by Patrick Burns & Co. of Burns Meats in 1901. Burns - rancher, meat packer and operator of a chain of butcher shops in western Canada - operated his business here until 1909. Burns Meats went on to become one of the largest meat processing and packing businesses in Canada, and Pat Burns himself became a millionaire as result of his early innovative entrepreneurial activity.

Samuel Joseph Cohen, originally from San Francisco, opened the first Army & Navy Department Store, nearby on West Hastings Street, in 1919. From its humble beginnings selling surplus goods, the Army and Navy Department Store specialized in buying and selling manufacturer’s overruns and bankrupt stock, catering from the start more to the popular market than to the wealthy who frequented the higher-end retailers like Woodward’s and the Hudson’s Bay Company further west. The value of the Army & Navy is in part its enduring role as an anchor of the district’s retail business. Of equal significance is its being owned to this day by the Cohen family. The Cohens have been an important presence in Vancouver business and social circles, and as models in their cultural milieu since these early days. As part of the expansion of the Army & Navy, this building was acquired, possibly in the 1960's.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the McIntosh Block include:
- its relationship with neighbouring buildings as part of this historic streetscape
- its form and massing, as a typical purpose-built retail outlet in the late 1800s, with details including three cast iron pillars evoking the historic storefront
- three storey masonry building with sheet metal cornice stopped at each end with decorative brackets
- rusticated stone pilasters at either side of building with decorated consoles above which brick pilasters continue to the cornice level
- projecting cornice with decorative brackets aligned with street-level pilasters
- double-hung second and third level sash windows; semi-circular top units surmounted with semi-circular and segmental molded architraves connected to horizontal string course