1058 Nelson St

Caroline Court is a 7.5-storey brick apartment building built in 1912 by James M. Patullo and named after his wife Caroline. It was designed by J. P. Matheson & Son in the Edwardian Renaissance Revival Style and constructed by the Dominion Construction Company for $150,000. It has a “B” Category in the Heritage Register and is described by the Vancouver Heritage Resource Inventory as a very good example of an early apartment in the area. A steel frame sunroom was added in 1912 to be used as a tearoom for tenants to enjoy the views from the rooftop.

Caroline Court operated as an apartment hotel up until the 1960s, renting furnished suites on a daily, weekly or monthly basis in addition to accommodating longer-term tenants in semi-furnished suites. Advertisements appearing in Vancouver Daily World in the building’s earliest years describe Caroline Court as the “most modern and thoroughly equipped apartment house in Vancouver” and a “high class apartment building catering to the best class of tenants.” The suites were equipped with built-in dressers, writing desks and “Holmes disappearing beds” that rolled out from a ventilated iron recess under a built-in buffet. The building also included janitor and delivery service and “an abundance of hot water.”

After having fallen into disrepair, it was purchased by Centurex Management Ltd in 1992 and underwent extensive exterior and interior renovations with the goal of bringing “it back to its original state prior to being neglected.” Caroline Court currently operates as a rental building; its suites still contain the Holmes disappearing beds and built-in buffets featured in several West End apartment buildings of this era. The steel-frame sunroom perched at the top of the building operated as a popular yoga studio for many years until 2016.

Former residents include Mayor L. D. Taylor who lived on the top floor of Caroline Court in 1917 and writer Malcolm Lowry who lived at Caroline Court in 1953-54.

Source

Vancouver Heritage Resource Inventory, Exploring Vancouver 2 by Harold Kalman, The Untold Secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Homes by Eve Lazarus, Changing Vancouver blog, Building Vancouver blog, Vancouver Daily World, The Ubyssey (1974), personal communication with Property Manager (2016).