In its day the Dunsmuir Hotel was a prestigious hotel – and a large one too. It was intended as more of an apartment hotel, with the possibility of combining up to four rooms into a suite. It was built by David Gibb and Son, a company skilled in building brick and stone buildings. David Gibb senior left Glasgow for New York in 1879, spent some time in Chicago, and arrived in Vancouver in 1889. He was involved in the construction of several significant buildings. By 1925 it was one of number of hotels in the area competing in the tourist trade. By the Second World War it wasn’t doing so well, and in 1947 it was taken over as part of the effort to house returning War Veterans, run by the Citizens’ Rehabilitation Council of Greater Vancouver. A few years later the Salvation Army turned it into Dunsmuir House, their shelter and social services centre, and in 2004 the Salvation Army moved to new premises nearby, and the shelter became a hotel aimed at International Students. Via.