This Week in History: 1962 The Wosks unveil their latest West End high-rise
Credit to Author: John Mackie| Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2020 00:19:15 +0000
The Wosk brothers were renowned in B.C. for their discount stores, and their fabulously garish newspaper ads.
“Walk! Come by taxi, train or boat, but do not miss this sensational RECORD-BREAKING VALUE EVENT!” said a Wosk’s ad on Feb. 1, 1950. “500 ranges — coal, wood, oil, sawdust, gas electric. 100 radios — 25 washing machines — 10 refrigerators, etc. etc.”
The full-page ad was accompanied by photos of all the items on sale, and their prices. And a new ad would run most every day in The Vancouver Sun from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s.
Behind the scenes, brothers Ben and Morris Wosk quietly assembled another empire: real estate. They started investing in apartment blocks in the 1940s, but really went gangbusters during the 1960s boom.
On Feb. 22, 1962 Morris announced the family’s latest project at 1395 Beach in the West End.
“The luxury 11-storey Surfside building (overlooks) Sunset Beach,” said a story in The Sun.
“The 90-suite block is due to open March 1. With rents ranging from $90 to a maximum of $150, it could be a pace setter among view apartment buildings.”
Feb 24, 1967. The new Wosk building, the Blue Horizon Hotel, is almost completed at Bute and Robson. Brian Kent/Vancouver Sun
The “short, energetic” Morris was photographed in front of the apartment tower. He declined to reveal how much real estate the family owned, but said they had big plans.
“If Morris had his way, there would be more and more tower apartment buildings in Vancouver,” said The Sun.
“Vancouver shouldn’t be a hick town,” said the 45-year-old executive. “It should show off its skyline. There’s nothing like a highrise building to do this. Look at the B.C. Electric Building and the Burrard Building.
“People take pride in showing them to visitors Nobody wants to brag about a two or three storey building.”
Wosk noted that the biggest apartment block in Vancouver at that time was the 234-suite Parkview Towers just west of the Burrard Bridge in Kitsilano.
“But this is small in comparison with other cities,” said Wosk, noting a project in New York had three buildings with 650 suites in each, while a two-tower project in Chicago had 800 suites in each.
“And they don’t even have a view,” he said.
Blue tile was one of the hallmarks of Wosk buildings. It was incorporated in both the Surfside and the 100-room Blue Boy Motel at 725 Southeast Marine Drive, which opened in Feb., 1964. It was also used in the 32-storey Blue Horizon Hotel at 1225 Robson, a 218-unit tower the Wosks opened in April, 1967.
Many of the Wosks’ 1960s buildings were developed by their company Stan-Ken Investments, which was named after two of their sons. But in Dec., 1968, the brothers split up, with Ben taking the Wosk’s stores and Stan-Ken Investments and Morris taking the Blue Horizon and the Blue Boy.
The Sheraton Landmark hotel under construction in November, 1972. Ralph Bower / Vancouver Sun
Ben Wosk developed the 42-storey Sheraton Landmark in 1973, while Morris would go on to own Beach Towers, a three tower, 600-unit complex that was built by Block Brothers in 1968.
The Wosk family had fled Russia for Canada in 1929, arriving in Halifax with little more than a jewel sewn into a coat. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society gave the family a salami, a loaf of bread and something to drink, and they were placed on a train bound for Vancouver, where a cousin lived.
The Wosks initially worked as street pedlars driving a horse and cart around, picking up second-hand goods. They would fix them up and resell them at a nominal profit.
In 1932 the Wosk family opened an appliance store on Granville Street, which grew into a retail empire with 13 outlets. The brothers became major philanthropists: Morris alone gave away $50 million during his lifetime.
“He used to quote his father,” said his son Yosef. “’If you make $10, you should give $1 to charity, put a dollar in your pocket, and spend $8 if you have to.’”
Like many department store chains, Wosk’s foundered in the 1980s and closed. In 1995, Ben died at 81 while on vacation in Honolulu; seven years later, Morris died at 84 while on vacation in Las Vegas.
Feb. 1, 1950. Wosk’s ad in The Vancouver Sun.
December 1956 ad for Wosk’s.
Ben Wosk of Wosk’s stores, July 22, 1976. Bill Keay / Vancouver Sun.
Local builder and philanthropist Morris J. Wosk in a 1966 handout photo.
Ben Wosk of Wosk’s stores in a Fred Schiffer photo stamped Jan. 27, 1968. Province files.
April 6, 1955 photo of Wosk’s on Hastings street.
A postcard of the Blue Horizon Hotel¤ at 1225 Robson Street in Vancouver. The 32-storey hotel was touted as “Vancouver’s address of distinction” when it opened in 1967. It featured a top-floor restaurant and lounge called the Top of the Horizon until 1985.
Postcard of the Blue Boy Motor Hotel, circa 1964 at 725 S.E. Marine Drive, Vancouver.
Feb 24, 1967. A worker checks out the view from the top of the Blue Horizon Hotel at Bute and Robson, looking northeast towards downtown and the waterfront. Brian Kent / Vancouver Sun
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