2321 Cook Street, Victoria, BC

I noticed this place while driving by recently, and today I biked there to get a closer look and take a few photos.

Googling the address revealed that it had much more of a story than I expected. It was built in 1913 and used to be the Caldwell Apartments, where a murderer lived; he killed someone over a drug debt in 2005 and turned himself in a few days later, after police seized evidence against him in a raid on the house. Shortly after that the building's residents were ordered evicted, although it wasn't fenced or fully boarded up until 2013. This is the Google street view photo, which was taken in June 2012. 

Before that, and possibly after too, squatters lived there, although in June of this year there was a fire (photo at the link, and several more here) which left the building structurally unsound. Because of that, it's impossible for it to be inspected to determine the cause of the fire. Here's a photo I took of the right side, where the fire damage is more obvious.

And a photo from the Times Colonist:

source

It's a shame that it wasn't sold, fixed up, and put to use again before it was too late.
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Edit on December 9, 2014: Walked by today and the top back half is gone. According to this article it's finally being demolished, although they say demolition was scheduled to be completed by December 5th, which obviously hasn't happened. No one was working on it today at all, although the backhoe from the article's photograph was sitting in the driveway next door. Didn't get any pictures, but I'll have to go back and take a few before it's completely gone.
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Edit on May 16, 2015: Quite late, but I'm finally adding the photos of it half-torn down, which I took on December 12, 2014. 

this little boarded-up cabin in back is intriguing... not sure if it got torn down too or not

Next time I drove by it was completely gone. Today I found this photo from the 1970s (and was super excited), which would have been cool before but is even more meaningful now that the building no longer exists.

Found here.  You can see the little cabin in the background!

Also, a bunch more links which I apparently missed before:

• Most interestingly, photos of the inside taken by a Flickr user in April 2014 (there are a lot, but it's definitely worth looking through them all)
• More photos of the fire taken by the same person
• On page 3 of this pdf, a photo taken circa spring 2006.
• A photo taken in 2012 (quite similar to Google's).
• A listserv message recounting how the tenants were given less than 24 hours to leave (and a long related rant by the same person)
• Victoria's Ad-Hoc Committee to End Homelessness at one point recommended the building as one possibility for conversion into affordable housing
• This letter gives it as the address of a disabled veteran in 1927
• And here it's given as the address of a solider (and his wife) who enlisted in 1916
• Ad from when the owner was trying to sell it
• Apparently in 2013 a heron was nesting in the "inaccessible" second floor
• People discussed it briefly on a message board in 2013 (in the context of buildings possibly eligible for heritage status)
• Victoria City Council documents from 2014 officially declaring the building "a nuisance" and stating that it needs to demolished; also recounts its unfortunate history since becoming unoccupied and notes that, in July 2014, "further collapse of the building [was] likely should there be a substantial wind storm". The "Notice of Remedial Action Requirement" sent to the owner is also included (page 6), as well as a letter sent to the owner in June 2014 from Victoria's Acting Chief Building Inspector after his post-fire inspection (8), and a letter describing the fire damage in detail (9). This letter recommends that "Danger: Keep Out" signs be placed on the fence, which apparently didn't happen, and that the building be demolished before October to avoid the risk of significant snowfall causing further collapse--which seems laughably over-cautious since we only ever got one slight dusting. Finally, the pdf also includes some post-fire photos (11-13).
• More recently, City of Victoria's bid details for the demolition of the building. The page says there was a meeting about it (a mandatory site viewing) on January 7, 2015, which is weird because demolition had already been started (and I believe completed) at that point. This pdf references a meeting on January 7, 2014, though...
• Also, see my post on 1176 Yates for some quotes from the owner (Robin Kimpton) regarding the two properties.

Can't find anything about the future of the site. I'll have to bike by again sometime soon and see what it looks like now.