Sam Kee Building
8 West Pender Street
The Sam Kee Company, one of the wealthiest firms in turn-of-the-last-century
Chinatown, bought this land as a standard-sized lot in 1903. But
in 1912 the City widened Pender Street, expropriating 24 feet off
the front of the lot. In 1913 the achitects Brown and Gillam designed
this narrow, steel-framed building that is only 6 feet wide. The
basement, extending under the sidewalk, housed public baths; offices
and shops were on the ground floor and living quarters above. Rehabilitation
of the building for Jack Chow was designed by Soren Rasmussen Architect
and completed in 1986. The building is considered the thinnest commercial
building in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.
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