DEVONSHIRE RODE PROSPERITY WAVE
Luxe building billed as ‘Last Thing in Apartments’
It took a few years for the Vancouver economy to recover after the First World War. But things started to pick up in the fall of 1923 when the Vancouver World ran a banner headline across the front page, Prosperity Begins For City.
“The news of the day is crowded with cheerful announcements relating to the return of prosperity to Canada, British Columbia and Vancouver,” said the Sept. 12, 1923 World.
“Work ordered to start on Second Narrows Bridge to cost $1,450,000. Contract let for apartment hotel to cost $550,000.”
The apartment hotel was the Devonshire. Located at 849 West Georgia, the seven-storey structure was touted as “the largest single building project in the city since the prewar years.” It was designed by McCarter and Nairne, the architects of the Marine Building, and was owned by Walter Evans.
Things went up quickly in those days, and by Feb. 4, 1924, the World had a story titled Devonshire to be Last Thing in Apartments. It featured a photo of the building under construction, and a drawing of what it would look like when it was completed.
“There will be 122 suites from two to four rooms each,” said the World. “Every suite has a tiled bathroom and kitchen fitted with a gas range, ice box, complete cabinet and breakfast nook with chairs. A few bachelor suites of one room are also arranged for.
“The fronts facing on Georgia and Hornby will be finished to the second storey with Haddington Island stone and will be completed in buff pressed brick with terra cotta facings.
“The vestibule and lobby have floors of grey and black marble of Caen Stone, and will be furnished with Oriental rugs and furniture on antique lines.”
The Devonshire also had underground parking for 50 vehicles, which it hoped would attract “motor tourists, of whom there are expected to be many thousands (coming ) north over the Pacific Highway next season.”
The Sun ran a photo of the completed building on July 23, 1924, that shows the Devonshire flanked by houses on both the Georgia and Hornby sides. The final cost of the building was $625,000.
Single rooms rented for as low as $4 per night, while apartments ranged from $60 per month for a one-bedroom to $95 for a three bedroom. This was pretty high end considering at the time you could rent a seven-room house on Seymour Street for $20 per month.
The Dev may have been a big building for 1924, but it was soon dwarfed by its new neighbours, the 12-storey Hotel Georgia ( built in 1927) and the 17-storey Georgia Medical Dental Building (1929).
Construction on another 17-storey structure went up kitty-corner to the Devonshire in late 1928. The block-long hotel was originally called the British Columbia, then the Canadian National. But construction stalled during the Great Depression, and it wouldn’t be completed until 1939 when it had been given yet another name, the Hotel Vancouver.
The Devonshire may have had some problems during the Depression, as well — in 1936 or 1937 it dropped the apartments tag and became a regular hotel.
In 1954, the Devonshire was one of four downtown hotels that were granted cocktail licences, the first time hard liquor was allowed for sale in a B.C. drinking establishment since prohibition began in 1917.
After owning the hotel for almost four decades, the Evans family sold the Devonshire to former Vancouver Canucks owner Coley Hall for $2 million in December 1963. Hall spent $1 million fixing up the building, and in 1967 sold the hotel lease and fixings to Joe Segal, Norman Loomer and Sidney Zack. But he retained the property rights.
In 1968, Loomer announced the hotel would spend $685,000 on another reno, which reconfigured the hotel up to 156 rooms. In 1979, local big band musician Dal Richards was named the Devonshire’s general manager, and in 1980 he started playing shows in the hotel ballroom.
But the allure of older hotels had faded downtown, and on July 5, 1981, the Devonshire came down to make way for a new office tower for the Bank of British Columbia. Five hundred people came out to watch the 57-year-old hotel fall after 330 charges were set off, sending it collapsing into itself. The implosion took six-and-a-half seconds.