All born ‘n’ bred South Van’ers will definitely know this place!!

 

The Blue Boy Motor Hotel opened in 1964 at a cost of $2 million ($16m in today’s dollars). It was built by the Wosk brothers of Wosk’s appliances.

 

The 6-storey hotel is best known for the 16-foot-high Italian mosaic of the Blue Boy, Thomas Gainsborough’s famed painting, which welcomed guests near the entrance of the hotel.

 

While the Blue Boy later became somewhat seedy, ghetto, and run down; that wasn’t always the case. When it first opened, the upscale Blue Boy (at that time) featured: 100 rooms furnished in Italian provincial style decor, 300 parking spots, a swimming pool, Regency dining room, Chandelier Room cocktail lounge, ballroom, coffee shop, tavern, boutiques, banking facilities, bowling alley, pool hall, and a supervised nursery. The Blue Boy was a place where many families in the community celebrated special occasions

 

When the Blue Boy opened, the Fraser Street Bridge (which was later replaced by the Knight St Bridge in 1974) was serving as a connection to Richmond, making the intersection of Fraser Street and Marine Drive a “gateway into Vancouver from the south”.