116 West Hastings Street

The value of 116 West Hastings Street lies in its location in a cluster of three- and four-storey early commercial buildings. Together they represent the patterns of retail shopping and services around the turn of the twentieth century in Vancouver. Smaller businesses flourished as they catered to the shoppers drawn to the larger outlets, as well as to the needs of the local residents.

116 West Hastings Street is an unusual example of a purpose-built hotel in what was a largely commercial strip. Built in 1907 as the Waldorf Rooms with offices on the ground floor, the building housed such early tenants as Ford and Ford doctors, Vancouver Stationery, Dan Stewart Tailors, George Wagg grocery, Heyman real estate, J.A. Clark crockery, and Vancouver Ice. For a decade the premises continued to be used by real estate agents, a grocer, and a china shop. For the next thirty years, the premises were occupied by long term tenants, including Kydd Brothers hardware and plumbing supplies, Toric Optical, and a printshop. The overall economic downturn in the area is indicated by the rapid change of retail outlets in the past twenty years, as customers changed their shopping habits, preferring suburban shoppping malls to the downtown experience.

There is also value in the Edwardian architectural design. The building marks the changing public taste from the highly decorated facades of the Victoria period to the more refined facades of the Edwardian era; this is a very good example of Edwardian design, with rectangular windows in a smooth symmetrical brick facade. The restrained ornamentation presents a contrast to the highly decorated buildings to the east on Hastings Street and in adjacent Gastown.