F.R. Stewart and Company Building

Gastown is the historic core of Vancouver, and is the city's earliest, most historic area of commercial buildings and warehouses. The F.R. Stewart and Company Building 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 early twentieth century. As Vancouver prospered, warehouses were built on piles on filled water lots between Water Street and the former Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) trestle.

The building is valued for its associations with original owner Emma Gold, one of the Gold family, pioneer settlers, hoteliers and merchants in Vancouver. The first tenant was F.R. Stewart and Company, a prominent local wholesale produce firm. The building is also significant for its association with the successful architectural firm of Parr and Fee, who designed this building in 1910. John Edmeston Parr (1856-1923) and Thomas A. Fee (1860-1929) were known for their progressive use of new technology in construction, and had a profound impact on the look of Edwardian Vancouver as architects and speculative developers.

This building is further valued for its association with the area's provincial heritage designation in 1971, and the consequent area-wide street beautification, the first of its kind in Canada. Marathon Realty, the real estate division of the Canadian Pacific Railway, preserved most of the warehouses on the north side of this block, adding the new infill project Gaslight Square in 1974-75, designed by architects Henriquez and Todd. This building was retained as part of this mixed-use development.