Identifier

Hotel Vancouver c.1939 architectural drawings and Susan "Suzie" Fawcett recollections

Title

Hotel Vancouver c.1939 basement floor plans and architectural drawings

Description

Partial floor plan of the Hotel Vancouver [Owned by CN Railways opened 1939] basement. Includes parts of the cafeteria, the Men's Tavern, and the Barber Shop. The images are part of a Fairmont Vancouver Hotel webpage "THE VIBRANT GAY BAR OF HOTEL VANCOUVER IN THE 1940S".

Format

JPG, 5

Type

Blue print

Architectural drawings

https://www.fairmont-hotel-vancouver.com/blog/the-vibrant-gay-bar-of-hotel-vancouver-in-the-1940s/

Creator

Various including John Schofield, Architect

Date Created

2024-04-19

Date

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

Theme

See all items with this valueLabour

Sub-theme

Vancouver Queer History

Subject

Cafeterias

Vancouver hotel history

Gendered drinking establishments

Vancouver Queer spaces 1930s

Corporate public relations

Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 28

Places, Locations and Nations

Vancouver, Canada.

Downtown Vancouver

Unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Note

Susan "Suzie" Fawcett, interviewed for the Women's Labour History Project oral histories, worked at this third iteration of the Hotel Vancouver from 1939 as a meat carver, counter girl, and 1st counter girl, likely working in the mezzanine cafeteria.

Suzie said in her oral history re working during WWII:

"the manager always put a sign up that please English only to be spoken in. Because we did have a lot of other nationalities... but he preferred everyone speak English just in case there was anybody thinking it might be spies or something." [OBJ-627_sideA] [https://omeka.crossingfonds.com/s/crossing-fonds/item/366]; [a man] couldn't join the army, he was put into the farms. They took away everybody except Swiss."

To this point: The HV chef, Antonio Scarabelli, had before the war identified as German; after as Swiss. This common device of misdirection was used by Italians and Germans (especially those who may have Swiss ancestry) was likely sparked when his brother, Carlo, head chef at the Chateau Laurier Hotel Chef, was interned as an enemy alien for 2 months in 1940. Carlo was subsequently released to become a "Travelling Inspector for the C.N.R. hotels".

Also: Members of the prominant Culos family believe the HV had an RCMP officer working undercover as a waiter in Aprll 1940 when the Circolo Giulio Giordani and Circolo Roma held a banquet there for the purpose of collecting member names that were thought to have (and in some cases admitted to having) fascist sympathies. (3) At least 3 people working in the HV were interned: Owner of the hotel barbershop, one waiter, one of the cooks. [source of 3 & 4: Injustice Served, Raymond Culos, 2012.]

Source

Fairmont Hotel Vancouver website

Provenance

C.N. Railways

Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

Access Rights

Public domain