Pierre Paris was a new immigrant from the Basque region of France when he opened his first small shop on Main Street at 7th. He called it, The World Shoe Hospital. Business was good and he then bought and moved into the the building at 51 West Hastings in 1911. It had a bar in the basement, warehouses on the main floors and the Strathcona Hotel above.
Pierre’s company grew, making shoes and especially, boots for the logging industry that was booming in Vancouver at the time. Their success and reputation continued for 60 years.
In addition to running his growing enterprise, Pierre studied podiatry and his two sons, George and Roger, followed his example by attending podiatry school in Chicago. George and Roger returned to Vancouver to join their father’s podiatry practice and each took their turn at the helm of the family business.
In 1979, the well known Dayton Boot Company bought the rights to make Paris Boots. The building was sold for $375,000 and Pierre Paris & Sons became Paris Orthotics, which still does business out of Kitsilano to this day.
My 1990 scene shows the building on Hastings housing Idea Gift & Toy on the ground floor. This was a time when this part of West Hastings had begun to slip into economic decline. The building became run-down and abandoned.
It has now, recently, been turned into condos and is referred to as the Paris Block.
My personal connection with Pierre Paris & Sons begins with my late uncle, Martin (Marty) Rooney. Originally from Glasgow, Scotland, he arrived in Vancouver in the mid 1960’s after having secured work at a gold mine in Northern British Columbia. While in Vancouver for the first time, he discovered Perrie Paris and what he felt was the best pair of shoes he had ever worn. From that day, he never bought a pair of shoes anywhere else. He was angry to find that Perrie Paris had closed down in 1979. Sadly, it was only a few years later, in 1984, that he passed away. He was only fifty years old. It was his second job in northern BC, that he started in the early 1970’s, at Cassiar’s asbestos mine, that ultimately cursed him with asbestosis and lung cancer.
So this piece is in memory of my Uncle Marty. I still miss him. He always spent so much time with me and my brothers and sister. So many long walks and hikes, stories and laughs.