Past & Present: Hastings and Granville Streets, 1921/2016

 Discover the Golden Years on The Forbidden Vancouver Tour. Starting in 1908, Vancouver went through a period of extremely rapid growth. New buildings began popping up everywhere – including this one.Built as the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1908, it has been home to Birks jewelers since 1994. The original Birks Building was at Granville and Georgia, as was the street clock, once a popular rendezvous point downtown. Local heritage buffs consider the 1974 demolition of the Birks Building one of Vancouver’s greatest heritage losses, so much so that it helped inspire the birth of the city’s modern heritage conservation movement.Archival photo by WJ Moore (1921), City of Vancouver Archives #Str P43.1