Palace

The Palace Hotel is a Historical Pub located at 275 Skinner Street Nanaimo, BC Canada V9R 5E9

We are open for business from 9am to 2am 7 days a week. Off-sales of Beer, Wine and Cider available from 9am to 11pm

Bar is non-smoking. Outside patio is smoking area. BBQ now open. Bring your own food - BBQ - Party on the patio

The uneven shoreline, sheltered islands and sandy beaches of the east coast of Vancouver Island has been, for centuries, a place of beauty and plenty. Aboriginal people were the first to make this sheltered stretch of coastline their home. Eventually settling in the area that today is known as Departure Bay, the Snunéymuxw, a Coast Salish people, found food, fresh water, and winter shelter among the islands and inlets. It was this wealth of natural resources that encouraged the migration of Europeans to this coast many years later. Animals harvested for furs, forests for timber and fish for food were just some of the treasures found here, but it was coal, the black fuel of the 19th century that would forever mark the heritage of Nanaimo. Today, the houses, the commercial buildings, the city plan, and the very shape of the land records the progress of a community that grew from a company coal town to a thriving port city. The Snunéymuxw left abundant traces of their original settlement in the Nanaimo district, which is evidenced by the many archaeological sites in the area. Their homes, the first architectural structures to be built in Nanaimo, were great longhouses measuring about 100 feet long by 30 feet wide. Built with skeletons of log beams, the longhouses had split cedar planks for the walls and shed roofs with a smoke hole. Each longhouse housed several families, providing a place for sleeping, cooking and celebrating. Europeans first explored the east coast of Vancouver Island when Spaniard Juan de Fuca sailed North up the continent in 1592. The English, represented by Captain James Cook, did not arrive until 1778 when Cook landed on the west coast of the island. The Spanish continued to explore the waters around the island giving the names we still use today to the islands and waterways. It was not until 1843 that the British established Fort Victoria, their first island settlement. It was the discovery of coal that soon attracted the British to the island north of Victoria. In 1849, the Hudson’s Bay Company began mining in Fort Rupert on the northern tip of the Island. A few years later, the existence of coal seams was confirmed in, what is today, Downtown Nanaimo.

Built in 1889, the Palace Hotel is a very good example of the Italianate style, one of the most popular nineteenth century architectural styles in North America. The Palace Hotel was one of the earliest of the new type of hotels that was built during this era. It’s marks the beginning of a transition from the City’s early rough, pioneer type architecture to a more refined and elegant style. Although there have been numerous renovations over the years, the building retains much of its original character.

The Palace Hotel represents the economic boom that was generated by the completion of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway and the expansion of the No. 1 Coal Mine in the 1880s. This handsome, ornate brick building speaks to the mood of prosperity and possibility prevalent at the time.

The Palace Hotel represents the social importance of hotels in Nanaimo history. Like most mining communities, early Nanaimo had a large population of single, often transient, men. As affordable housing alternatives, hotels functioned as living quarters and, in the saloons and restaurants typically located on the ground floor, as social centers.

The value of the Palace Hotel lies in location at the bend of a curvilinear, narrow lane that intersects with the main downtown thoroughfare. The view to the Palace Hotel is framed by landmark historic structures on the main street. The hotel itself partially closes the vista from the main street and acts to create a feeling of intimacy and seclusion.