The Yale Saloon

The Yale Saloon sits at the corner of Granville and Drake Streets, identifiable by the neon saxophone sign mounted on its exterior. Originally built in eighteen eighty-nine as the Colonial Hotel, the structure served as a bunkhouse for Canadian Pacific Railway workers and remains one of the oldest buildings on the Granville Strip. It survived the Great Vancouver Fire of eighteen eighty-six and operated for decades as a working-class pub before gaining a reputation in the mid-nineteen eighties as a premier venue for blues music.