Overview

This English Provincial styled hotel accommodated an upper-middle and upper clientele when it opened in 1905. The booster of the British Empire, Rudyard Kipling stayed at the inn in 11/1907. Following a night on the town in Victoria, Kipling memorialized the Oak Bay Hotel in a unpublished poem that he gave to the owner, John Virtue. New ownership in 1938, changed the name twice, first to the "Ewing Apartment Hotel" and next, in 1939, to"The Old Charming Inn." The hotel remained in business until 1962, when it was demolished to make way for an apartment building called the "Rudyard Kipling."

Building History

This exclusive hotel replaced the Mount Baker Hotel, destroyed by fire in 1902. The architect Samuel Maclure (1860–1929), who was in the process of relocating his practice from Victoria, BC, to Vancouver, BC, associated with the English architect, Alfred Bodley (1870-1946), who was also in the process of relocating out of Victoria. (Bodley moved to Seattle, WA, in late 1903). The Oak Bay Hotel was erected in 1904-1905 on what was then called the Mount Baker Road. It had a decidedly English character, appropriate for a city that strongly celebrated it British heritage.

Building Notes

The Oak Bay Hotel should not be confused with the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, completed in 1927. The hotel had several addresses as Mount Baker Avenue became Newport Avenue in 1910, and the street was renumbered in 1914. Its address from 1905-1909 was Mount Baker Avenue, from 1910-1913, 901 Newport Avenue, and from 1914-1937, 1225 Newport Avenue. A new owner, Jane Ewing, reoriented the hotel's main entrance after she purchased it in 1938, the address changing from1225 Newport Avenue to 1420 Beach Drive.

Alteration

The building was altered in 1938 as noted above.

Demolition

The Oak Bay Hotel was razed in 1962.

PCAD id: 20143