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Old Brick building at 225 Dundas Street (at Catherine Street) in Vic West


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#1 slinkyo

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Posted 11 December 2010 - 09:43 AM

Seem it's been gutted! This is one of the oldest buildings on that street. It was a Dr's office (Vic West Medical Centre) for many years. Anyone know what's up? More condo's, or just an update on the interior?





#2 dirtydeeds

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Posted 11 December 2010 - 11:03 AM

I drive by it every day and always thought it is a great old building!

#3 wisevictoria

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  • Location225 Dundas Street, Victoria, BC

Posted 05 October 2012 - 11:35 AM

Here is some more building history information for anyone interested:
Wise Victoria Mortgages | Our Building | Victoria BC

Feedback and comments appreciated.

Nick

#4 Mike K.

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Posted 05 October 2012 - 11:38 AM

Thanks for sharing, wisevictoria, and welcome to the forum.

I love this excerpt from the page:

During the mid-1920s The branch catered to many prominent businesses of the time, including the Victoria Machinery Depot, Ormond’s Biscuit Factory, and most notably the Silver Springs Brewery next door — with whom the Royal Bank had a, let’s say, mutually beneficial relationship. Their headquarters being so close together, and both businesses being involved in the trade of a much-desired commodity, the bank and the brewery installed a buzzer system within each of their main offices to notify the other in the case of a holdup.

Now it turns out that 1920s Victoria wasn’t home to that many burglars, as the buzzer system eventually took on a more casual purpose. According to reports, following three buzzes from the Silver Springs office, a bank employee would run across the street with a crate on his shoulder, slide down a conveniently-located coal chute, and be met with a replenishment of fresh Silver Springs Ale, on the house. We can only assume this was in exchange for especially diligent banking services.


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#5 dasmo

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Posted 05 October 2012 - 01:31 PM

It is a cool building! The location is VicWest though, not Esquimalt. Not that there's anything wrong with there.

#6 wisevictoria

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  • Location225 Dundas Street, Victoria, BC

Posted 10 October 2012 - 01:09 PM

Dasmo - not sure what you are referring to with the Esquimalt vs. Vic West comment. Is there an error on the website I am missing?

One of the most interesting and rewarding aspects of doing this project was the number of people who had some sort of relationship with the building over the years. We had one lady stop by whose uncle had rented an upper level apartment for years and years. Another man was a relative of the former bank manager, who told us apparently that the bank had been robbed at some point, with some staff members held hostage at gunpoint. We have not been able to find any news articles related to this - any help with that would be much appreciated. During an open house party, we actually had a very, very elderly man come in who was a former customer of the bank from when he was a young man.

Certainly if anyone has any old photos or stories that they would like to share, it would be much appreciated.

#7 dasmo

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Posted 10 October 2012 - 01:14 PM

The threads title had the building in ESQ. It's since been changed to VW :-)

 



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