Exterior view of the Queen's Hotel, 2004
Photo: City of Nanaimo, Christine Meutzner, 2004
- Built
- 1892
- Recognized
- 2002
- By
- Local government
The register’s text, word for word
Description
The Queen's Hotel is a two-story Italianate style building located in downtown Nanaimo. The historic place is confined to the building footprint.
Heritage value
The Queen's Hotel is a tangible reminder of the historic importance of hotels in Nanaimo history. Early Nanaimo, subject to the boom and bust economic cycles typical of mining towns, had a large population of single, often transient, men. As affordable housing alternatives, hotels functioned as living quarters and, in the saloons and restaurants typically located on the ground floor, as social centres.
The Queen's Hotel is significant as a reminder of the importance of Victoria Crescent as an early commercial strip. Most of Nanaimo's oldest surviving commercial buildings are located on this street.
The Queen's Hotel has been in continuous use as a drinking establishment for over 100 years.
Located mid-block, Queen's Hotel is prominent on the street and is part of a grouping of historic buildings in this area.
Built in 1892, the Queen's Hotel is a good, rare surviving example of the Italianate style, one of the most popular styles of the nineteenth century. Although the hotel was substantially renovated in the 1980s and many of the original architectural elements were lost, the essential form and mass of the building are intact.
SourceCity of Nanaimo, Development Services Department, file #6800-20-H01-02/34 Victoria Crescent
Character‑defining elements
Character defining elements of the Queen's Hotel include:
-all of the remaining elements of the original Italianate style including the form and vertical massing of the building and the second floor arched double-hung windows.
-the building's location on an early commercial street within a grouping of historic buildings.
-the building's continuous use as drinking establishment
End of the register’s text
Location
34 Victoria Crescent, Nanaimo, British Columbia, V9R, Canada
49.16367° N, 123.93559° W
Get directions (opens in a new tab)Being on the register doesn’t make a place open to visitors. Many are private homes or businesses; please view them from the street.
Loading map…
Similar places
Places whose register descriptions are closest to this one.
From the Canadian Register of Historic Places, as last updated on December 12, 2025. The register’s text is shown word for word.