With the help of the Gastown Business Improvement Society and the Vancouver archives you can now learn about each building in Gastown through the Gastown Blog Building History Series. Enjoy and keep posted for more history from the Gastown Blog.
In part three we are profiling the Leckie building. Located opposite Water St Cafe, the Leckie building is now home to John Casablancas, Pourhouse, and Delane Canada. Check out our previous Buidling History posts on the Hotel Europe and the Landing.
The Leckie – 164 Water Street
Built: 1908 – 1913
Architect: Dalton & Eveleigh
Architectural Style: Edwardian Commercial
Renovated: 1991
Leckie . Photo Credit: Vancouver Public Library photo no.28411
Built in two sections, the west section in 1908 and the eastern addition added in 1913, the Leckie building was built for the J. Leckie Company, a leading manufacturer of boots and shoes. It is an excellent example of heavy timber construction, typically used in early Gastown buildings.
inside Leckie . Photo Credit: Vancouver Public Library photo no.21638. Year 1923
The Leckie family is one of Vancouver’s pioneer heritage families. Mr. John Leckie, the founder of the J. Leckie Co., and two of his children, Robert and William moved to Vancouver in the late 1800’s. They set up a shoe factory after purchasing a small shoe factory in Nanaimo and moving it to Vancouver. Leckie became synonymous with good shoes and boots – ‘Leckies’ were a must and were worn by both loggers and the fashion-conscious. The J. Leckie Company was major supplier of boots to the Canadian Armed Forces serving in both the First and Second World wars.
inside Leckie . Photo Credit: Vancouver Public Library photo no.21637
The building was renovated in 1991 and won a City of Vancouver Heritage Award for the structural upgrading. The steel rods, which run diagonally from the ground floor windows to the top storey, are part of the innovative seismic upgrading system. They are tied to anchors which extend 90 feet into the ground.
Leckie. then and now.
I really like The GastownBlog!
Shouldn’t you give some credit to the Gastown Heritage Plaques? I don’t know who their original author is but some of this blog post seems plagiarized.
The heritage plaque text…
http://www.gastown.org/history/leckie.html
“This building was erected for the J. Leckie Company, a leading manufacturer of boots and shoes, as their factory and sales office.
It is a good example of heavy timber construction, typically used in early Gastown buildings. It was built in two sections: the western part in 1908 and the eastern part in 1913.
The building was renovated in 1991 and won a City of Vancouver Heritage Award for the structural upgrading. The steel rods, which run diagonally from the ground floor windows to the top storey, are part of an innovative seismic upgrading system. They are tied to anchors which extend 90 feet below grade.”
Hi Al
The http://www.gastown.org website and the http://www.gastownblog.com site are both run by the Gastown Business Improvement Society.
The plaques on Gastown heritage buildings are fantastic and most include the same information as on the http://www.gastownblog.com. We have made it more accessibly for people to learn about these great buildings and have used the Vancouver archives to provide pictures.
My grandmother, my mothers mother, was the sister to the two Leckie brothers who last ran the family shoe factory. Mom always told us of stories about the use of Leckie Boxes to bring ladies shoes the girls had bought in Seattle back to Vancouver. Theit cousin was Robert Leckie, Air Marshall, RCAF during WW2