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Sitting on the corner of Nelson and Granville for well over a hundred years, the Hotel Belmont has undergone many name changes in it's century of existence. It was named after its original owner, Colonel Oscar G. Barron, an American hotelier. In 1925 it became the Belmont, in the 1970s it was the Nelson Place, then the Dakota, a Comfort Inn in the early 2000s, and back to the Belmont in 2017. One of its claims to fame was Babalu’s Tapas Lounge, where a young Michael Buble honed his craft. 

When it opened in 1908 the Dunsmuir Hotel was a classy place, offering "American and European plan" rooms "within a minute's walk from the center of the city".  As years passed it's fortunes declined, and it was turned over to the Salvation Army. It has been vacant since 2013, and is currently owned by the Holborn Group, who own the entire block with plans for redevelopment. However, this building has a heritage designation and will probably be restored. 

This building was completed in 1910, and served as Vancouver's main post office until 1958.  In the 1980s the entire block, consisting of four separate buildings, was consolidated into the Sinclair Centre, connected by a glass-roofed Atrium. In this 1936 image, the building was being decorated for Vancouver's Golden Jubilee. 

This well-known heritage building was Canada's first reinforced concrete structure, when it was built in 1909. Business was booming for the first few years, as it was close to the old steamship docks, but when the Hotel Vancouver opened up across town, the city centre gradually moved north and west, and the hotel fell into disrepair. It has since been restored, converted to affordable housing and retains many of its original finishings. It is apparently haunted.

When it was completed in 1910, the Dominion Trust Building was the first steel-framed building in Vancouver, and the tallest commercial structure in the British Empire.  At the time, this street was the banking centre of the city. It's $600,000 price tag forced the builder, the Imperial Trust Company, to merge with its rival, the Dominion Trust Company. It's one of the few Beaux-Arts style buildings in the city. 

Not much remains of the Expo 86 grounds. I was able to line up the Skytrain tracks with Science World to approximate the location of the East Gate Entrance. 

Built in 1912 at the edge of Chinatown, the Stratford Hotel has seen better days.  It was built during an economic boom in Vancouver, but over the years, the centre of town drifted over to the north west, and the building languished, surviving several fires and miscellaneous shenanigans. These days it is called the Fan Tower, a low income housing facility, with a trendy oyster bar on the ground floor. 

Science World is one of the few buildings remaining from this amazing summer.  Even the streets and pathways have changed, so it's difficult to find a reference for these old photos.  Original picture courtesy of Ernie Reksten.

When it was built in 1911, the Dawson Building towered over its neighbours at Hastings and Main. It was named after George Dawson, who built and operated canneries throughout the province. It's now called the Ford Building and provides housing for low income residents.  

In 1901 American Industrialist Andrew Carnegie gave the city $50,000 to replace our library that had been destroyed in the Great Fire.  The building was made from Indian Arm granite and Gabriola Island sandstone, and cost over 2 million dollars. Nowadays it operates as the 'living room' for the downtown East Side, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada.