Yale Beckons

During the 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) opened the Yale Hotel as a bunkhouse for CPR workers who cleared land to lay tracks that helped develop then-fledgling Vancouver. Renamed the Colonial in 1889 after a fire claimed much of the city, it reclaimed its original moniker once again in 1911. During the late 1970s, the hotel’s management opened a blues-oriented nightclub; its rousing success transformed the local icon into a music mecca. The exposed-neon saxophone allures patrons into the club’s funky, inviting persona.