The Moda Hotel

The Moda Hotel, formally known as the Dufferin Hotel opened in 1908, with its main clientele comprised of Canadian Pacific Rail workers and travelers. The Dufferin Hotel was named after Lord Dufferin (1826-1902), a former Governor General of Canada. Dufferin was a popular figure in the court of Queen Victoria and had served as an ambassador in Italy, Syria, and India.
John Edmeston Parr and Thomas Arthur Fee where the architects of the Dufferin Hotel worked together as speculative developers in British Columbia. Other well acclaimed work by Parr and Fee includes landmark Vancouver buildings such as the Vancouver Block, Hotel Europe, the Dunsmuir Hotel, and one of Vancouver’s first large apartment blocks, the Manhattan Apartments.

In 1884, the first house built in Yaletown on Smithe Street was just steps away from the Moda Hotel. Yaletown consisted primarily of men working in the railroad shops in the late 1800’s and then shingle and sawmills leading well into the early 1900’s. As part of its colourful history and before the hotels recent upscale reno, it was well known as a happening gay bar that was straight friendly. There was a successful lounge and pub and they both where an important part of the City’s nightlife offering something local and real rather than the hype of characterless clubs on Granville Street. There was many a fabulous party housed under those four walls that included large size strappy shoes wigs and sequence. The new modern make over now includes the trendy Uva Wine bar rather than lounge and the upscale Cibo Trattoria restaurant rather than the pub. So over 100 years later, the now Moda Hotel is keeping pace with the evolution of the Yaletown districts identity of being a chic, trendy, artistic and cultural place to be.