1600 Block east side

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1600 Block east side looking north in 1926

1600 Block east side looking south in late 1930s

East side 1600 block looking north, 1942 (Richmond Archives 1999-4-3-2302)

1700-1704 Graveley

1906-1913

BP 1908/12/22 to Rogers & Nesbitt, $560. BP 3303 1911/6/7 to G.C. Courbold, architect A. Dawson, $200 to “lower” building.

  • 1700 Graveley
  • 1702 Graveley
  • 1704 Graveley

1706-1710 Graveley

1910-1954

BP 1909/12/6 to C.R. Dayton, builder Standard Building, $3.000

  • 1706 Graveley
  • 1708 Graveley
  • 1710 Graveley

1600-1606 Commercial

1909-1954

Described on the 1912 Insurance Map as one storey with three storefronts. At some point, possibly 1914, this building encompassed 1700-1704 Graveley. According to Joan Proctor, Wah Lee’s “sold fresh produce and still tallied up their sales on a Chinese abacus while the old grandmother seated out back on a wooden crate, watched from behind the folds of a tattered curtain” (p.169). By the early 1950s the building was described as “an old derelict which has disfigured the Drive.”

  • 1600 Commercial
  • 1604 Commercial
  • 1606 Commercial

1604 Commercial

1954-

Built by Angus Leong & Gee Kee for $25,000. It also encompassed 1706-1710 Graveley. The Echo called it “one of the finest store buildings in Vancouver.”

  • 1604 Commercial

1608-1610 Commercial

1909-1911

  • 1610 Commercial

1608-1612 Commercial

1911-

BP 1911/4/4 to H.D, Odlin, $5,500 building. However, it seems this was not carried forth. BP 1911/4/13 to H.D. Odlin, builder W.W. Behart. $2,000. The two storefronts have been conjoined (as 1608) since about 2005.

Harry N. Odlin was a barber downtown.  He first appears in 1896, working for John Lambert at 530 Georgia Street, and by 1900 he was at the Elite Barber Shop at 617 West Hastings.  Between 1902 and 1914 he worked in partnership with another barber, Charles Herman, at various addresses on West Hastings and Granville Streets, and he lived at 1123 Nelson Street. He appears to have been wildly successful (perhaps not just from barbering) because by 1911 he had purchased an expensive waterfront lot where he built a fine two storey $3,700 dwelling at 3197 Point Grey Road that, much enhanced, still exists.

Odlin was also able to buy a 33 foot lot in the 1600-block of Commercial Drive (then known as Park Drive) at the height of Grandview’s speculative bubble.  Lots of this size were selling for about $10,000 that year, although he may have purchased it earlier. He was issued two building permits for the site in April 1911 to erect a building valued at $7,500 designed and built by W.W. Brehart.  When it was completed by the middle of 1912, one storefront was taken up by Philip Timms, a photographer, the other by a confectioner, and the apartments began to be filled.

In 1912, Harry Odlin listed himself in the Directory as a realtor.  However, he was in fact still a barber, operating as the St. Regis Barber Shop on Dunsmuir Street until the late 1940s. His long and rather uneventful career suggests a steady conservative man, and his building — the Odlin Block at 1608-1612 Commercial — reflects that same conservatism with its flat unadorned brick facade.

  • 1608 Commercial
  • 1610 Commercial
  • 1612 Commercial (apartments)

1616-1620 Commercial

1910-

In 1922

BP 1910/7/11 to Joseph Rodway, builder R. Wood, $10,000. The two storefronts have been conjoined since 1946.

Joseph Rodway was a sheet metal manufacturer who had been born in Manitoba in the 1850s.  He moved his large family first to Alberta and then to Vancouver where he took up residence at 1644 Woodland Drive.  He found the money to buy the lot next to Harry Odlin’s and in July 1911 he was issued a permit to erect a $10,000 building.  He hired W.G. Thomas to design it and a Mr. Wood to build it. Unlike the flat brickwork of its neighbour, Rodway ordered up a building with bay windows and significant amounts of ornamentation.  It is easy to believe that the pressed tin cornices, wall pieces and window parts were a deliberate advertisement for Joseph Rodway’s own business which eventually took over both storefronts.

By the time the business opened at the new store, Rodway was already in his late 50s and the company was operated by his son Albert.  The Western Call reported at the time that the business was “prospering” under Albert’s “able management.”  However, it seems that sheet metal work wasn’t what the son wanted, and by 1914 the business had been sold to newcomer Fred Hamilton.  Joseph Rodway worked for Hamilton for a short while, but then retired and he was dead by 1922.

Fred Hamilton operated his hardware and plumbing business at 1618 Commercial until 1945 when he moved up the street to his own building at 1447 Commercial where the company stayed until February 1969.

  • 1616 Commercial
  • 1618 Commercial
  • 1620 Commercial (apartments)

1622 Commercial

1909-1930

A dwelling, set back from the Drive. It was refurbished as a store in 1921, 1921/8/22 BP A-1610 to Fleming (owner), J. Reid (builder), $500 store.

  • 1622 Commercial

1622 Commercial

1930-

Built originally for Safeway. In early 1947 the store underwent remodelling and redecoration making it “one of the most attractive business places on the Drive” (Echo). The building was renovated and the two storefronts separated in 2013.

  • 1622 Commercial
  • 1622 (a) Commercial

1624 Commercial

1922-1929

A dwelling set well back from the Drive.

  • 1624 Commercial

1624 Commercial

1922-1930

BP 1921/8/22 to S.J. Fleming, builder J. Reid, $500. One storey built in front of 1624 Commercial.

  • 1624 Commercial

1626 Commercial

1922-1930

BP A-774 1921/4/28 to S.J. Fleming, builder Tinney & Co., $320. BP A-1467 1921/8/1 to S.J. Fleming, $1,000 store. One storey built in front of 1624 Commercial.

  • 1626 Commercial

1626 Commercial

1930-

BP 1929/6/12 to MacGregor & Hewer Ltd, owner, W.M. Dodd & Co, architect, S.H. McLeod, builder, $12,500 new store; built for Woolworth’s.

  • 1626 Commercial

1666 Commercial

1910-1910

Assumed to be a real estate shack/office.

  • 1666 Commercial

1670-1678 Commercial

1912-

BP 1561 1912/2/23 to Joseph Peacock (owner and builder), H. Burnham (architect), $6,000 2-storey apartments and stores; BP A-3897 1922/7/3 to Waghorn & Gwynn, $2,000 alterations to store (1670) and apartments, builder J.B. Sterling.

  • 1670 Commercial
  • 1674 Commercial (apartments)
  • 1678 Commercial

1684 Commercial

1924-

Building renovated in 2012.

  • 1984 Commercial

1690 Commercial

1910-

BP 1910/6/3 to Canadian Bank of Commerce (owner), Standard Housebuilding (builder), $4,500 bank; BP 1919/6/2 10375 to Bank of Commerce, $800 repairs/bank vault. It was rebuilt in 1937. And again in 1954.

  • 1690 Commercial

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