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 this week’s addition, we are profiling the Winters Hotel , home to Vallarta Grill Mexican Restaurant, Nika Design, Nouvelle Nouvelle Boutique, Urbanity, Bruce Eyewear and Occupied.  The upper floors are low income housing.

Check out our previous Building History posts on the Hotel Europe, the Landing, Leckie Building, Hotel Dominion, Holland Block, Packing House, Canadian Fairbanks Building, The Boulder Springer-Van Bramer, and Ferguson Block.

The Winters Hotel – 102 Water Street
Built: 1907-08
Architectural Style: Edwardian Commercial
Architects: William Tuff Whiteway

PHOTO: VCA HOT P43 N 33: 1914

The Winters Hotel, located on the S.W. corner of Abbott and Water Streets was built by Mr. William Federick Winters for his wife, Alice in 1907.

After the heady boom years immediately following the Klondike Gold Rush, Vancouver experienced a generation of steady growth.  The South side of Water Street was rebuilt with a number of substantial hotels such as the Winters which served the commercial travelers.

When it was built, the Winters was considered one of the better hotels in the city.  It was furnished with every modern and up-to-date convenience including telephones and hot running water and its own bar.

The Winters bar, along with about 80 other hotel bars in Vancouver, closed in 1917 when selling alcoholic beverages was prohibited by provincial law.  It opened again in 1921 when prohibition came to an end and the provincial government took over the sale of liquor.

Frequented only by men, the bar at the Winters Hotel is a good example of an average hotel bar in Vancouver during the early part of the twentieth century. The bar is made of highly polished mahogany with lots of carvings, large mirrors and marble around the base. Bar Tenders were well paid, well dressed and not expected to see too much, hear anything or drink with others. PHOTO: CVA 359-35: Winters Hotel from Abbott Street, 1910

Winters Hotel. Now and Then.