Archives Photos of the Day: Apartments

Look at an image of Vancouver before the 1990s and you’ll notice a very different landscape. Apartment towers have sprouted up at a rate of 3,000 units per year, which is 1,000 more annually than twenty years ago. Moving away from brick and stone, transforming into a city of glass. Apartment-dwellers outnumber those in row houses, semi-detached and detached homes combined in the city so I thought it might be worth a look back at apartments over the years, many of which are still-standing.

1910s – Mt Stephen Block (7th & Quebec). Archives item# SGN 1028. Photographer: WJ Moore.

1917 – Manhattan Apartments, 784 Thurlow at Robson. Archives item# CVA 99-346. Photographer: Stuart Thomson.

1919 – Washington Court, 998 Thurlow. Archives item# CVA 99-264. Photographer: Stuart Thomson.

1920 – Florence Court, 1201 W Georgia (at Bute). Archives item# CVA 99-1298. Photographer: Stuart Thomson.

1945 – Hornby at Robson. Archives item# CVA 586-4162. Photographer: Steffens Colmer.

1928 – Queen Charlotte Apartments, 1101 Nicola. Archives item# Bu N261. Photographer: WJ Moore.

Thanks to the City of Vancouver Archives for their resources.