261 E Pender St

This building was designed by Get Toy and construction was completed in 1914. It is primarily constructed out of brick. In 1975, the building underwent renovations. Since its construction, it has been occupied by over ten businesses. When it first opened, it was a grocery store called Tai Sing Company. It was occupied by Mow Lee Company in the mid 1920s and Lun Yick Company in the 1930s. In the 1940s, the space was shared by Sing Kee Sheet Metal Works and another Asian business (listed in the BC City Directories as “Oriental”) and it was occupied by two other Asian businesses around 1950. In 1954, the building was occupied by a grocery store called Fook Lee Lung Company, but half of the space was vacant until the mid 1960s, when it was occupied by C. Wong.

In 1970, Fook Lee Lung shifted from a grocery store to a butcher shop and was in business until the late 1980s. In the 1990s, the building was shared by four different businesses: Wah Yang Enterprises, Andrew Y Cheung, Fonnie International investments Limited, and Trillion Realty Corporation.

This site is part of the Chinatown Historic Area, HA-1 in the City of Vancouver’s zoning bylaw. It is included in the Vancouver Heritage Register as a recognized part of the historic neighbourhood. Other similar municipally protected sites within a Historic Area are marked on the map with an O instead of the usual Heritage Register categories of A, B, or C. Some of these sites may be newer construction but are nonetheless still protected. For more information on the bylaw that governs the Chinatown Historic Area see: https://bylaws.vancouver.ca/zoning/zoning-by-law-district-schedule-ha-1-1a.pdf

Source

Heritage Vancouver Building Permits Database, VanMap