Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!).
As far as cities go, Vancouver is pretty young at only 125 years old. But that doesn't mean that there isn't any history to celebrate, it just means that it doesn't stretch as far back as some other places. The subject of today's photograph is the Sylvia Hotel, which will celebrate it's 100th anniversary in 2013. Built between 1912 and 1913, Abraham Goldstein was denied a hotel permit from the city and had to settle for an apartment permit instead (ironically enough, the building was converted to a hotel at the end of the Great Depression, but Abraham was unable to continue mortgage payments after the First World War and had already moved his family to Los Angeles).
In 1954 Vancouver's first cocktail bar opened in the building and predictably became quite popular, and until 1958 the Sylvia Hotel was the tallest building in the West End. In fact, the entire top floor of the heritage building was a restaurant which advertised 'dining in the sky'. Random fact: the ivy covering the Gilford Street side of the hotel is Virginia Creeper, not to be confused with the famous ivy at Wrigley Field which is Boston Ivy.
Without further ado, here is an Untitled photo by Terry Power.
And where did the Sylvia get it's name? Mr. Goldstein named the building for his daughter Sylvia, of course. Sylvia returned to Vancouver from LA in 1928 and met Henry Ablowitz, her future husband while on a boat cruise for Jewish singles. She remained in Vancouver until her death in 2002 at the ripe old age of 102!
Final random fact: Abraham Goldstein was never able to realize his plan to build two more hotels named after his other children, Cecil and Aileen.
