CVA 647-1 - James McKissock (back row right) and three men perched on top of a terracotta buffalo head attached to the building facade of the second Hotel Vancouver
The Vancouver Sun Nov 23, 1948 Page 13
The Vancouver Sun Sep 9, 1995 Page 64
CVA reference card at location 508-E-7 part of AM54, S22
The Landing of Captain Vancouver by Marion Powers Kirkpatrick
Detail of The Landing of Captain Vancouver by Marion Powers Kirkpatrick
Preliminary sketch by Marion Powers Kirkpatrick
The bar of the Hotel Vancouver II
This post is a followup to a previous post I made 6 years ago. It is regarding the second Hotel Vancouver, dare I say the greatest loss to the wrecking ball that the city has ever seen.
This naturally leads us to the popular quandary, what happened to the majestic animal figures the adorned the exterior of the
hotel?
First, a brief synopsis of the terracotta figures that decorated the hotel. There were four moose and six bison heads decorating the eastern side of the building, and at least two more of each on the south side of the building, all larger than life, and all made by the Doulton Company of Lambeth, England. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is the same company famous for the Royal Doulton figurines you’ve no doubt have heard of.
As we all know too well, the hotel was demolished in 1949 to make way for a parking lot. And eventually, the new flagship location for the Eaton’s department store. Around the time the hotel was demolished, attempts were made by Eaton’s to donate a number of these gargoyles to
the Parks Board to be used as decoration at Stanley Park, as reported in
the Vancouver Sun on Tuesday, November 23, 1948, p.13.
I’ve included the text of this article above. But sadly, the animals have not been seen or heard from since.
Many years later, in 1995, Robin Ward pondered
the fate of these animals in another article in the Sun. He quotes Maurice Guibord, then with the Maritime Museum, who
proposed a Great Hotel Vancouver Head Hunt. In speaking directly with Maurice,
I’ve learned the only lead that ever turned up was from one of the former workmen of
the demolition, who recalled the
crews breaking up all these huge moose & bison terracotta heads to
pieces, after which they were carted off to False Creek where they were
used as fill in the old mud flats.
There was also some speculation that the future site of the The Bayshore Inn may have been used as a landfill as well, since that land had been granted to the Spencer family in 1949, the same year that Eaton’s took over Spencer’s. However, most of that site remained below the water mark in 1956, according to Vancouver Ltd. so unless it can be corroborated with some more tangible proof, False Creek Mud Flats is probably the most likely dump site.
There is one more morsel of information that turned up in the Vancouver Archives. One of the archivists at the Vancouver Archives shared with me a note that was written by Major Matthews himself that sadly confirms the figures were not suitable for donation. This note can be found in Major Matthews’ categorical cards on monuments and memorials, where there is a card dedicated to the second Hotel Vancouver. The card is at location 508-E-7 and is part of AM54, S22. The card states:
The demolition of the old Hotel Vancouver progressed during the spring and summer of 1949. About June 15th 1949, Mr. P.B. Stroyan, Supt of Parks, phoned Major Matthews asking if he wanted some elk or moose heads which had been sent him from the Hotel. Major Matthews enquired as to what condition they were in, and was told they were broken; had been badly removed. He replied he did not think he wanted them; no especial historical value; broken, etc. Mr Stroyan agreed they would be unsuitable for the archives.
If you read the text carefully, you’ll note that indeed,
some elk or moose heads had been sent to him from the Hotel. But what Mr. Stroyan did with the figures is unknown. If Mr Stroyan buried them in his backyard, these figures would literal be beneath the Parks Board Offices today, as their current offices at 2099 Beach Avenue were built on the site of Stroyan’s residential address of 1949.
So the trail of the terracotta animals has gone cold, but I did uncover one other early remnant from the Hotel Vancouver’s storied past. In my previous post, I provided a detailed description of the
8 x 16 foot mural that appeared in the hotel’s bar in the basement, The Landing of Captain Vancouver by American artist Marion Powers Kirkpatrick. This mural is pure historical fantasy, as I discussed in my previous post, so I won’t repeat what I’ve already said about the subject.
Back in 2018, I spotted a large number of items by
Marion Powers Kirkpatrick
going to auction on the east coast. Included in the auction was a large amount of articles and clippings that appeared to be from the artist’s own collection, leading me to believe this was quite possibly the remains of the artist’s estate.
I wasn’t able to acquire the large lot of clippings, but I did manage to get a number of her illustrations, including some preliminary works. And while I had no idea what I was going to uncover when the large lot of drawings and paintings arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by one large preliminary illustration in particular.
Shown above, the large partially completed illustration on tracing paper shows the same two figures that appear in the Vancouver mural! From the rough outlines of this preliminary drawing, it looks like a large box appears behind the two figures, and the woman, holding up a basket of fruit in the painted mural, appears to be holding up a basket of laundry. I am guessing this early rendition began as a mockup for a laundry detergent advertisement, but at some point it was transformed into
The Landing of Captain Vancouver
instead! Quite the change of plans!
To be able to uncover a lost relic connected to the Hotel Vancouver II, a structure that was built over 100 years ago, and demolished over 70 years ago is quite a feat today. Although this isn’t a larger than life bison or moose made of terracotta, it is at the very least a tangible link to the creation of one of the greatest hotels the city has ever seen, and I’m proud I found it.