Cadillac Hotel - 555 Hamilton Street
All photographs by Gary Sim, May 11 2023
555 Hamilton Street was designed by Seattle architect William P. White,
and opened as the Cadillac Hotel around 1913. White also designed
the Sylvia Apartments on English Bay (now Sylvia Hotel), and the
Englesea Lodge on Beach Avenue, destroyed by fire in 1982.
555 later operated as the Del Mar Inn (current at 553), a SRO housing facility.
The Bau-Xi Gallery occupied the ground
floor space from 1964 to 1972. The Artists Gallery, now the Contemporary Art Gallery,
was there from 1973 to 2001. From 2003 to 2005 the Belkin Satellite
Gallery operated there. Later, the space was renamed as the Cadillac
Gallery in honour of the building's original name. The Or Gallery
also occupied the ground floor gallery space for a while.
Note: sidewalk edited to remove signage and parked car.
When B.C. Hydro redeveloped the block for their headquarters at 333 Dunsmuir, the owner of 555 refused
to sell, and the building remains as the only original building in the block.
A public art text work titled UNLIMITED GROWTH INCREASES THE DIVIDE by Kathryn
Walter (q.v.) was installed in 1990. Another public artwork Gaslight by
Kathleen Ritter was installed in 2020.
References
Vancouver Heritage Foundation website:
https://placesthatmatter.ca/location/del-mar-inn/
GREATER VANCOUVER ART GALLERIES 1954-2020 (refer to GVAG20)
Includes references to 553/555 Hamilton.
BUILDING THE WEST - Early Architects of British Columbia
2003; Edited by Donald Luxton, numerous contributing authors and researchers
Talonbooks, ISBN 0-88922-474-9
560 pages, extensively illustrated in black and white, some colour
Biographies of over 400 architects and firms; extensive bibliography
Brief biography for White, mention of Del Mar Hotel
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