Part of Rossland’s oldest intact commercial streetscape, the Steen & Company Wholesale Liquors and Cigars building is the next to last of the five buildings comprising the collection, on its north end. Built in 1897 as a liquor and cigar dispensary, the building is valued for the many, eclectic businesses and organizations which once occupied various portions of the building. These run the gamut from the original liquor & cigar store, to a U.S. Consulate, warehousing, offices and, for many years a string of Chinese operated restaurants.
Nearly 20 years after the construction of the Steen & Company building, yet another liquor store was built across from it in 1914, George Owen Wholesale Liquors. This could indicate that Steen & Company no longer occupied the building and it had gone on to another use.
Built in 1897, this Frontier style building was comprised of two street level storefronts with apartments above. Part of Rossland's oldest, intact, commercial streetscape, the original businesses were a warehouse for wholesale liquors and cigars and the Rossland Warehouse and Transfer Co. The U.S. Consulate also operated out of these premises from 1898 to 1900.
The building transitioned from warehouse/office to other uses over the years, reflecting the fast growing city around it. It is significant that in the 1920's on three separate occasions, the building had Chinese owners. It operated as a Chinese restaurant, The Silver Grill, for decades. Currently it houses a yoga studio and an art studio with the Kathleen Apartments above.
From the Heritage Marker at Steen & Company
Steen & Company Wholesale Liquors
and Cigars
Description:
Steen & Company Wholesale Liquors and Cigars is a two-and-a half-storey, wood frame, flat-roofed commercial building with two street level storefronts built in 1897. It is part of a grouping of five 1890s buildings located on the eastern side of Washington Street between Columbia Avenue and First Avenue in the historic downtown of Rossland, BC.
Heritage Value:
Steen & Company Wholesale Liquors and Cigars is valued as part of Rossland’s oldest intact commercial streetscape. Together with its contiguous neighbors on both sides, it comprises the only surviving group of first-generation commercial buildings in Rossland’s historic downtown. It is remarkable that these wood-framed buildings survived a series of devastating fires that essentially decimated all other contemporary buildings in the surrounding blocks prior to 1929.
Purpose-built in 1897 to support this business, it reflects the type of commercial buildings that were erected seemingly overnight in order to support the mining and population boom in Rossland in the 1890s. The high ceilings, impressive storefront, and upper floor with central balcony and decorative cornice as visible in archival photographs, speak to the status of its original owners. The Rossland Warehouse and Transfer Company and the US Consulate were also operating out of this location, which further reflects the driving force of supply-based business on the growth of the city at that time.
This building also holds heritage value for its longstanding use as the Silver Grill (also known as Sammy’s in honour of its proprietor, Sammy Low) Chinese restaurant. The albeit, short-term ownership of the building by three persons of Chinese origin in the late 1920s, and its subsequent use as a Chinese restaurant for decades thereafter, speaks to the early and ongoing presence of a Chinese-Canadian community in Rossland.
Additional significance is attributed to the buildings’s early use as the first United States Consular Agency in Rossland (c.1898-1900). The presence of such an agency in 1898 is a strong illustration of the strategic geographic and economic ties the city had with the United States at that time, and particularly during the mining boom period.
The evolution of this commercial building from a warehouse/office to a more diverse range of purposes starting in the early 1900s reflects the shifting patterns of the natural resource-based economy on young settlements in the Interior of British Columbia. While unable to sustain its original warehouse-type use for an extended period of time, this building has maintained relevant uses over the decades.
In the mid-twentieth century, as was typical for former boom-towns, an effort to modernize resulted in significant alterations to the building. The façade was stripped-down, stucco cladding added and a new storefront was constructed to align with the buildings on either side. The building currently has a Yoga Studio and an Art Studio on street level and residential apartments on the top two floors (Kathleen Apartments)..
Character-Defining Elements:
- Commercial use since 1897
- Residential use since at least the 1910s.
- Its situation on its lot, and its relationship to the sidewalk, street, and back alley.
- Its attached relationship to the other buildings within this historic grouping.
- Its two-and-a-half-storey massing, with flat roof, and rectilinear façade.
- Its wood-frame construction.
- Its mixed use, with storefronts at street level and residential units in upper floors.
- Evidence of its early use as a warehouse, including its basement and any surviving
relevant interior spatial configurations dating to the time of its construction.
- Evidence of its original design and façade elements, including:
- High ceilings and remnants of the original storefront.
- Details of the decorative stepped pediment along the cornice line.
- Window and door openings.
- From the Rossland Heritage Register