Hotel Georgia Historical Marker, Vancouver, BC

Posted on by Misty
Hotel Georgia Historical Marker, Vancouver, BC

The Hotel Georgia was built between 1926 and 1927. It is a 12-story Georgian Revival-style hotel at the corner of Howe and West Georgia Streets. It was designed by R.T. Garrow and Seattle architect John Garam, Sr.

The hotel has hosted many prominent guests, including Marlene Dietrich; Elvis Presley; Errol Flynn; HRH Edward, Prince of Wales; John and Ethel Barrymore; and more.  Until 1941, it was also the location of one of the most popular radio stations, CKWX, which broadcasted from the hotel’s penthouse.

In 2011, the hotel was reopened as the Rosewood Hotel Georgia. It has undergone extensive renovations, the latest finishing in 2024.

Historical Marker Inscription

This distinguished hotel designed in the Georgian Revival style was opened in 1927 by Edward Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII. Through the 1920s prominent buildings such as this were quickly replacing the area’s early houses and apartments. For decades it was a social centre at the heart of the city’s downtown, home to the Newsman’s Club, the ladies’ Georgian Club and generations of UBC students in the downstairs ‘George V’ pub. The hotel has hosted many diplomats and distinguished guests, including celebrities such as John Wayne, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones. An extensive rehabilitation completed in 2011 included installing a corner blade sign similar to one from the 1930s, and restoring its richly-detailed wood-paneled lobby, terrazzo, flooring, ballroom, plasterwork, curved staircase, and second floor meeting rooms.

The hotel reopened its doors in the summer of 2011 as the Rosewood Hotel Georgia. In 2007 Hotel Georgia Development Ltd., in association with Delta Land Development Ltd., began extensive exterior and interior rehabilitation and restoration of the hotel. The project team under the leadership of renowned architectural firm Endall Elliot Associates in conjunction with international interior designer Munge Leung Associates was dedicated to restoring this heritage Ceorgian Revival hotel to its original grandeur.

Location

49° 16’ 59.520” N, 123° 7’ 8.820” W
693–699 Howe St, Vancouver BC V6C 2E5, Canada

James Sinclair Historical Marker, Radium Hot Springs, BC

Posted on by Misty
James Sinclair Historical Marker, British Columbia, Canada

James Sinclair began working for the Hudson Bay Company in 1826. He was the son of HBC officer Willian Sinclair. He initially worked at both Fort Albany and Chickney Goose Tent, located in Ontario.

In 1827, he relocated to the Red River Settlement in Manitoba and became a private trader. He later began fur trading, selling the furs back to the Hudson Bay Company. The goal was to keep American competitors from accessing the furs.

This is also the reason that the HBC wanted to reduce population growth in the settlement. To do this and improve Great Britain’s claim to the area, they arranged for a group of families to move into Oregon at the Columbia River. Sinclair was the guide who led the settlers through the plains and Rocky Mountains.

He would eventually move to the Oregon Territory, living in both Oregon and California. He would later become the head of HBC’s Fort Walla Walla. On March 26, 1856, he would be killed during an attack by Native Americans at the fort.

Historical Marker Inscription

In 1841, Sinclair guided 200 Red River settlers from Fort Garry through the Rockies to Oregon in an attempt to hold the territory for Great Britain. By 1854 he had recrossed the mountains several times by routes which later were followed by trails and highways — a tribute to this great pathfinder, traveller, free trader and colonizer.

Providence of British Columbia

1966

Location

50° 36’ 3.852” N, 116° 3’ 31.050” W

7875–7889 Highway 93, Radium Hot Springs BC V0A 1M0, Canada