Oceanview Apartments

By 1916, Powell River was a community with an expanding population. The tent community was gone and residents were now housed in spacious family homes and apartments. All the amenities the town’s population needed were in service and the pulp and paper mill was expanding.

While all the Powell River homes built in the Craftsman style were built with the finest quality in workmanship and materials, in 1916, the Powell River Company undertook to build even more luxurious accommodations called the Ocean View Apartments.

The two-story structure contained sixteen one-bedroom apartments, each with a private entrance to the outdoors by way of porches and cascading stairwells. Architecturally the effect is referred to as the Picturesque style.

The Ocean View is a stately apartment block befitting the meticulously appointed suites inside. The building featured nine foot ceilings on the main floor and an additional foot on the second. Hardwood flooring was installed throughout. A separate dining room with wooden sliding doors opened into the living room. Two interior courtyards provided light into the interior rooms and allowed access to the basement below where each suite had it’s own laundry room and a coal and wood storage room

Significantly, the materials used in 1916 to build the Ocean View Apartments have withstood the test of time, the building being in excellent condition today, indicating the emphasis on the quality of its initial conception.

Within the Historic Townsite of Powell River, our mission is to promote heritage education, heritage conservation and revitalization of the traditional downtown core.