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http://www.historicplaces.ca/
Afton
Hotel
Other
Name(s)
Ovaltine
Cafe
249
East Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia
Statement of Significance
Description
of Historic Place
The
Afton Hotel, a four-storey masonry commercial building designed
in the Edwardian Italian Renaissance Revival style, is on East
Hastings Street in Vancouver.
 Heritage
Value
The
value of the Afton Hotel lies in its position in the streetscape
of this block of East Hastings Street. Although the seven buildings
on the north side of this block - built between 1901 and 1913
- range in height from one to eight storeys, were designed by
seven different architects, and constructed of different materials,
they share several features. Together they illustrate the changing
use of this area of East Hastings Street from residential to business
use and place the district as a shopping and commercial centre
for the emerging city of Vancouver in the early twentieth century.
The architectural styles speak to the changing public taste from
the ornate decoration of the late Victorian era to the more refined
ornamentation of the Edwardian age.
Built
in 1912 to a design by architect Arthur Julius Bird for owner
R. B. Hamilton, the structure was designed as an apartment building.
The symmetry and masonry construction exemplify the Edwardian
styling, although the curved pediments at the top of two rows
of windows are an unusual feature. It was altered in 1914 when
it housed Burlington Tailors on the main floor with government
offices, including Vancouver postal substation B on the street
level, and a variety of Canadian government offices located on
the upper floors. Since 1925, the upper floors have been used
as a rooming house, and more recently as the Afton Hotel.
After
1917, the postal substation relocated and the ground floor was
utilized by a series of retail outlets, tailor shops, and restaurants,
including the Ovaltine Cafe in 1942. The exuberant Ovaltine Cafe
neon signage with its distinctive arrow-shaped projecting sign,
made by Wallace Neon in 1942, evokes the 1940s and 1950s, Vancouver's
'golden age' of neon, when there was reportedly more neon in Vancouver
than anywhere in the world, except for Shanghai, China. The interior
of the cafe has survived intact, and includes a coffee counter,
booths, mirrors and varnished woodwork.
Source:
City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program
Character-Defining
Elements
The
character-defining elements of the historic place include:
- commercial form, four-storey scale and rectangular massing
- built right to the lot line with no setbacks
- its physical and stylistic relationship with other buildings
within the East Hastings Street strip and adjoining neighbourhoods
- its location in a grouping of hotels and lodgings on East Hastings
Street
- its early use for Canadian government offices
- characteristics of the Edwardian Italian Renaissance Revival
style including: rusticated stone string courses above ground
floor level, three dimensional lead lights above storefront, sheet
metal upper cornice with bracket and medallions, metal cornice
above storefront, unusual pediments at top of two rows of windows
- significant interior features of the Ovaltine Cafe interior,
including coffee counter, booths, mirrors and varnished woodwork
- Ovaltine Cafe projecting and storefront neon signs
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