Lange Block

The Lange Block demonstrates an important phase in the Victorian-era development of Victoria’s gateway economy, driven in the 1880s by the resource-era boom that was largely due to the exploitation of coal in Nanaimo, timber resources in Southern Vancouver Island and the completion of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway. Requiring space for commercial expansion, Victoria had begun to develop to the north and east of the original business centre that was located around the Hudson’s Bay Company fort.

The building to the north was also built in 1891, and to the south in 1888; the three buildings form a significant complementary grouping on the west side of Government Street that illustrates Victoria’s rapidly-developing downtown core. Like other commercial buildings in downtown Victoria, the Lange Block had retail shops on the ground floor with apartments above. The building’s first owner, Miss Pauline Lange, lived above the retail space. The building was later owned by George A. Richardson, of a pioneering Victoria family, who ran a dry-goods establishment known as the Victoria House. The ground floor was later the long-time home of Cross’s Market, a well-known local butcher.

The Lange Block is an outstanding example of the development of the Italianate style, and its richly-articulated façade features double-height oriel windows and a strong bracketed cornice, expressed in pressed sheet metal. This is a rare surviving example of the commercial work of its architect, Cornelius Soule, who was born and trained in London, England. After practicing in England and the United States he settled in Ontario when offered the commission to build a school at Campbellford, Ontario. After travelling across the country and back, he finally settled in Victoria in 1890. He designed many residences for wealthy city businessmen, but his most prestigious commission was the Willows Agricultural Exhibit Hall, 1891 (destroyed by fire in 1907). In partnership with Robert Scott Day, he designed the Point Comfort Hotel on Mayne Island in 1892-93 and the North Ward School in 1893-94; in partnership with Samuel Maclure he designed ‘Parkside’, a mansion in Vancouver for Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper in 1899 (all demolished).

The richly-articulated façade of the Lange Block is also a very significant example of the sheet-metal ornamentation used on the commercial buildings of the era. An inexpensive alternative to stone, galvanized sheet metal could be crisply formed to a variety of shapes, and was widely used for cornices and brackets. Here, exceptionally-elaborate sheet metal was also used to clad the projecting double-height oriels, including fluted colonnettes, corrugated insets and running stringcourses. This profusion of ornament illustrates the skill and craftsmanship of the many local tinsmiths that were working in Victoria at the time.