I have walked by this apartment building at 1855 Vine St in Kitsilano numerous times and have always wondered about its background. I assumed it used to be a bank, even though it's not on a major street. After a little digging, I found some information about it.
It was built as a church (initially the Kitsilano Presbyterian Church) in 1911, and eventually became the Vancouver Indian Centre (now the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Society) when this photo was taken in the 1970s. The organization occupied the building from 1970 to 1979.
Today, the building houses a collection of million-dollar condos called Devon Court.
"In 1985, architect Donald O'Callaghan modernized the inside of the Italianate shell into five unique two-storey private residences of timeless quality," describes the Vancity Lofts website profile of the building.
John Bentley is an architectural photographer who has photographed the inside and outside of thousands of buildings around Vancouver. Using images from the Vancouver Archives he offers a glimpse of the past and present on his site Vancouver Now & Then.
