photo Terry Peters LONGTIME ST. Alice Hotel residents Jim Bruce (left) and Jim Morrison stand in front of their old home. The hotel, a North Vancouver City fixture for slmost 77 years, is slated for demolition te make way for a 28- storey inxury highrise. NV HOTEL TC BE DEMOLISHED St. Alice closes doors ITEM: THE Express, North Vancouver, Tuesday March 19, 1912 OPENING OF THE ST. ALICE HOTEL MR. GALLIA PROVIDES SUMPTUOUS BANQUET TO MANY WELL-WISHERS The new St. Alice Hotel on Second Street west was auspiciously opened on Friday night, when a large assembiy partook of a banquet at the in- vitation of Mr. Antonio Gallia, proprietor of the hotel. An exceptional- ly fine spread was provided and the company, which was representative of all the offical departments of the city, were high in their praises of the function. The mayor and other dignitaries made speeches of congratula- tion and afterwards accompanied Mr. Gallia on a tour of inspection. The hotel is replete with conveniences and is undoubtedly an addition to the North Shore. Af both the sumptuous repast and the impromptu dance which followed, a Vancouver orchestra supplied excellent music. Mr. Gallia was generally congratulated of the success of the function, which, it is hoped, was in preface to a long spell of prosperity. Almost 77 years later the doors to the Cockatoo Lounge, the beer parlor with its Swedish-built pseudo-native artifact pillar fixtures, and the 35-rooms, which until recently were home to 21 low-income residents, will close to the public forever. The decrepit landmark, once termed the Grand Lady of North Vancouver hotels, is scheduled to maake way for a 28-storey luxury highrise. Although a 1984 inventory of ci- ty heritage sites listed the hotel as a building of primary heritage im- portance, the distinctive recl brick building located at 120 West Se- cond St. was never officially des- ignated a heritage building. A November consultant’s report to the city evaluating the preserva- tion potential of the St. Alice of- fered three scenarios for upgrading the hotel. The building was deem- ed to be in good shape structurally. One scenario would have seen the hotel upgraded to continue opera- tion as a low-cost residential hotel. The hotel could also have been renovated for market or social housing. But North Vancouver City Council voted Dec. 12 to allow By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter demolition of the hotel. Owner Cressey Development Corp. plans to demolish the building within 60 days. Lestina Holding’s Sootee Tay, who bought the hotel in September 1987, will hand over possession of the vacant hotel to Cressey Feb. 6. Tay said he gave tenants, who were paying $300 to $350 per month in rent, three months’ notice to vacate. “Most have relocated in North Vancouver,"’ said Tay. Tay is unsentimental about the hotel’s impending destruction. ‘‘] didn’t see any heritage value. It’s just an old building. There’s no architectural significance, no his- torical significance. If Mackenzie King had stayed here it might be different.’’ But the bulk of the hotel's te- nants in recent times have been single and elderly men living on limited incomes. Sixty-four-year-old Jim Mor- rison has lived and worked as a desk clerk at the hotel for seven years, Said Morrison of the hotel's closure, ‘“‘Once your time is over, bury it and forget it. The old- timers will keep it in their memo- ries. For the youngsters who are too young to get in here, it will be a little too late.”’ Morrison believes the closure will make life easier for local police. **Pve seen too many people car- ried out the door,’’ he said. ‘‘Once the “O” (Olympic Hotel) goes it will clean out the alcoholics. I don’t drink. In seven years I’ve only been able to talk three people out of drinking. Jt’s killing a lot of natives here. When this place is gone, the police will have an easier job.”’ The hotel, built during 1911, was named after Gallia’s wife, Alicia. Vancouver architect William Doctor of Higman and Doctor Architects designed the building. Doctor was the architect for the 1911 Hudson Bay In- surance Company Building in Vancouver. The five-storey St. Alice was converted in 1943 by the National Housing Administration for war- time use as a 35-unit apartment block for Navy men and their fam- ilies. The pub was added to the hotel in 1943. Morrison said the Navy men lined the basement with metal and concrete and converted it into a shooting range. Tragedy struck at the hotel last year on March 27, when eight- year-old Skylor O’Brien was crushed to death in the hotel's elevator after he had squeezed in between the collapsible door and outer door of the elevator while playing in the lobby. 3 - Sunday, February 5, 1989 - North Shore News MEETING TO ADDRESS POSSIBILITY Third crossing low priority for local mayors A THIRD Burrard Inlet crossing is far down the list of North Shore transporta- tion improvement priorities. By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter So say the three North Shore mayors, who will meet Tuesday with a delegation from the Downtown Vancouver Association (DVA) to express each municipali- ty’s interest in a third crossing and listen to DVA third-crossing mro- posals. The DVA organized the meeting following a recent announcement by Highways Minister Nei! Vant that the province would consider plans for private bridges and tun- nels anywhere in B.C. DVA representatives say subse- quent interest in building a toll crossing of Burrard Inlet has come from companies all over the world. But North Vancouver District Mayor Marilyn Baker said that though she would attend the meeting and was willing to listen to the DV,\'s presentation, such pro- jects as completing the Cassiar Connector, improving access and egress at the north end of the Se- cond Narrows Bridge, completing a Low L¢el road link and improv- ing the Liollarton Highway would have far y.sater impact on improv- ing imme!iate North Shore trans- portation ‘han a third crossing. North ‘/ancouver City Mayor Jack Louc’s, who said he was in favor of a shird crossing when it was proposed in the early °70s, said any new proposal would have to go back tu ‘‘square two if not square one, Vancouver has chang- ed so much.” Loucks, too, said completing the Cassiar Connector and overpasses at the Upper Leveis Highway and Lonsdale Avenue and Westview Drive were far mor: important at this time than a third crossing and would go a long way to improving North Shore coinmuter traffic flow. West Vancouver Mayor Don Lanskail, who is also the chairman of the Vancouver Regiona! Transit Commission, said emphasis in any third crossing plan should be on rapid transit and providing a SkyTrain link. A third crossing, he said, would dramatically increase vehicufar traffic to the North Shore and place ‘enormous pressure on North Shore development.” But DVA advisory panel member and North Shore resident Ed Keate said private companies in China, Japan, Belgium and the United Kingdom have shown in- terest in financing and building a Burrard Inlet crossing in return for resulting toll revenues. He estimated the cost to build the crossing would be around $300 million, “but it wouldn't cost the taxpayers a dime,”’ if it were built by a private firm. The DVA, he said, would recommend that any crossing in- ¢lude provision for rapid transit. “Our real point is that we have got to start planning for the future now,”’ Keate said. Access to the North Shore, he pointed out, was a high priority identified in the North Shore Economic Development Strategy. Increasing development of Whistler and Vancouver Island, Keate said, would also place ever greater demands on North Shore transportation facilities, which provide access to both areas via the Squamish highway and the B.C. Ferries’ Horseshoe Bay terminal. The provincial government’s recently-released Freedom to Move plan for B.C. transportation states that both ‘‘crossings of the Bur- rard Inlet are capacity-deficient and require careful analysis to find some way to relieve the intolerable delays, especially at the First Nar- rows Bridge.” According to the study, Burrard Inlet crossings and connections to Highway | are major issues that must be addressed. It also recom- mends a third SeaBus be added to the current two-vessel fleet. In 1970, a $4 million, 26-month study of a third Burrard Inlet crossing was produced by Swan Wooster and CBA Consulting Engineers for the National Har- bours Board (which is now the Vancouver Port Corp.). Under the proposal produced from that study, the crossing, either a six-lane bridge or tunnel with two lanes of rapid transit, would link with the Upper Levels Highway via an interchange mid- way between the Capilano River and Westview Drive at MacKay Creek. The road would cut through North Vancouver District and City following MacKay Creek. A bridge NORTH Yancouver City Mayor Jack Loucks ...any propose! would have to go beck to ‘‘square two if not square one.” interchange and toll plaza would be located at Third and Welch streets, The span would then ran from near the foot of Pemberton Avenue, bypass Brockton Pint and link up with Vancouver at the north foot of Burrard and Howe streets. But it would bypass Van- couver’s central business district via a tunnel that would follow Thurlow and emerge at Drake Street, where it would connec? with the north ends of the False Creek bridges and to the arterial street systeras at the bead of False Creek. North Vancouver engineer Zoltan Kuun, chairman of the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce’s transportation com- mittee and one of the engineers who worked on the harbors board study, said the original $200 mil- lion cost to build the preposal’s third crossing and its vasious in- terchanges and bypasses would now be approximately $1 billion. Other third crossing proposals have included twinning Lions Gate Bridge and connecting Deep Cove to the foco area, but Kuun said the design contained in the harbors board plan is still the best because it provides the most desirable “travel line’’ for commuters and the best route between the inlet’s north and south shores. As a partial solution to relieving the immediate Lions Gate Bridge congestion, the *’orth Vancouver Chamber’s transportation commit- tee is also advocating widening the Lions Gate causeway to five lanes, with one lane exclusively for north bound buses.