252-260 E Georgia St

This two-storey brick building dating from 1910-1916 stretches over three lots and houses several businesses. The building had originally been built by M. O’Keefe for Champion and White, a building supply company who added stables on this lot. W.H. Chow’s design in 1930 for H.Y. Louie’s building adapts the stables into the larger building (522) for a home and warehouse. Hok Yat Louie or H.Y. Louie Company developed the family’s grocery wholesale business from this location and owned the building into the 1950s. In the ’90s the Banana Room booze can operated in the second floor. The current occupant is grocer, Tin Lee Market.

252-260 East Georgia St was added to the register in 1986 for its connection with W.H. Chow, a Chinese-Canadian Architect who was never formally recognized as an architect due to discriminatory laws at the time, but designed many buildings in Chinatown and Vancouver. It is also significant as a direct connection and continued business legacy with H.Y. Louie Company, as son Tong Louie expanded his father’s grocery success and family business by bringing IGA to BC in the 1950s and acquiring ownership of London Drugs in the 1970s.

Source

Canada's Historic Places, Changing Vancouver blog, John Mackie, Vancouver Sun March 2016 "Old and new Chinatown meet in the 200-block of East Georgia"

More information

https://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/tag/h-y-louie/