In the photo the Burns Building is the shorter one on the far right. The Allan Hotel, to the left, burned, nearly taking the Burns Building with it. The view is to the southeast, across Columbia
Avenue. The photo appears to be from the early to mid 1920s.
The Burns Building was constructed in 1906 by Pat Burns, meat magnate, to house his Rossland butcher shop. Burns moved to Calgary to establish the P. Burns Meat Packing Co., but continued to operate the Rossland store through a series of managers. In actuality, Burns built butcher shops in nearly every mining town in southern BC in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In 1944, Harold Elmes, a long-time alderman and mayor of Rossland, acquired the building from the owner of the Allan Hotel and operated the store as “The Butcheteria.” The lower floor is currently occupied by the Associate Medical Clinic. The two buildings on the left have replaced the Hotel Allen after the lots stood empty for several years.
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