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At the turn of the last century there was very little to do in Vancouver. The hollow tree was the City's first tourist attraction, and visitors were often taken here to be photographed. There are hundreds of pictures like this in the city archives.  

This 1936 photo shows the Holden Building all decked out for Vancouver's 50th birthday. It was built in 1911 and served as City Hall from 1924 to 1936. The office building was converted to residential units for local seniors in 1988, and is now called the Tellier Tower. Notice the sign for the 'Don't Argue' Coffee Shop next door, neighbour to the famous 'Only' Seafood restaurant, which lived there from 1916 until 2009. These buildings, along with the Woods Hotel to the west, form a rich treasure trove of Vancouver's heritage.

One of Vancouver's oldest surviving hotels, the Victorian was built in 1897 to house prospectors and explorers heading to the Klondike gold rush.  It has been completely restored and is now a popular boutique hotel within walking distance of Gastown.
 

Great vintage photo from 1952 showing one of the many neighbourhood convenience stores that have disappeared over the years. 

This photograph from 1932 shows a home belonging to S.A. Brown. 

Built in 1908 by John J Miller, Vancouver alderman and first president of the PNE, who named it Kurrajong after a tree in his native Australia. Today the Edwardian style building is a private hospital, and on the Vancouver Heritage Register.  

I was surprised to find this 1908 home hidden among the warehouses and office buildings. It's one of the last few remaining houses on this street. 

Strathcona was home to a number of these rowhouses in the early 1900s (this one was built in 1908). The neighbourhood had been zoned industrial since the 1930s, making it virtually impossible to obtain financing for renovations, and as a result many of the area's homes fell into ruin and were torn down. Several of these units were condemned in the 1980s, but an intrepid group of investors pooled their funds, bought this rowhouse for $180,000 and fixed them all up. 

This Strathcona apartment building was completed in 1911 at a cost of $5000. There was a convenience store on the ground floor for many years. 

It's hard to believe that this is the same house, but it is. I checked. All of the trimmings have been lost to time, and at some point the house was raised and covered in asphalt shingles. It is also one of the oldest remaining houses in Vancouver, the 10th house to be hooked up to Vancouver's water supply in 1889, when it was built. Surprisingly, it is not on Vancouver's heritage register, and is now surrounded by commercial buildings, so who knows how long it will last.