ARCHITECTURE:
The front of this side-gabled, commercial brick building is divided into five bays separated by brick pilasters and a corbelled brick frieze. The entrance door is in the centre bay. All openings are segmentally-arched. The concrete capped, parapetted gables have corbelled brick friezes and string courses, and brick pilasters. The front façade has an obtrusive wrought iron attic entrance stairway.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
This office-warehouse is an important survivor in the Rock Bay industrial complex for Victoria Gas Co. One storey in front and two storeys in the rear, with attic space, it cost $20,000 to build. Victoria Gas Co was incorporatedin 1860 and by 1862 gas lamps were appearing on the city streets, the first outside a liquor store on Yates St. [512 Pembroke St, built 1862, was demolished c.2012 due to hazardous waste on the site.] At that time the office-warehouse was surrounded by gas holders, furnaces etc. and coal from Nanaimo was unloaded at the company wharf. By 1862 the company had six miles of gas mains, expanded to 12 miles by 1890. Victoria Gas Co was acquired by BC Electric Railway Co in 1905, when electricity had become a serious competitor for lighting, although gas was still used for cooking. BCER eventually became BC Hydro, who are still the owners of the property. BC Hydro used 502 until the late 1980s, then it was used for a few years as a bottled gas plant. The building was vacant several years until The Open Door moved in from 1998 to 2003. Remediation for 502 Pembroke continues as of 2014.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• Statement of Significance (Canadian Register of Historic Places)
• Map of Victoria Heritage Register Properties