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Beacon Lodge

apartment building in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ20712154
Source-derived summary

The Beacon Lodge is an apartment building in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Located at 30 Douglas Street, the building is directly across from the start of the Trans-Canada Highway, and just over 200 m south of Beacon Drive-In.

The building has 59 rental units on 4 separate floors, the majority being small bachelor suites and a few one-bedroom apartments. Many suites have views of the Olympic Mountains across the Strait of Juan de Fuca and others overlook Beacon Hill Park.

History

In 1945 Henri Côté and his wife Anne-Marie (Forcade) Côté, along with his parents, Joseph and Ida (Demers) Côté, moved to Victoria from Edmonton, Alberta. Joseph Côté purchased the Beacon Cottage, an old historic building built in 1883. Being contractors by profession, both father and son renovated the building, converting it into a motel and renaming it the Tourist Lodge. They opened for business in 1946.

The Tourist Lodge was a haven for many travellers looking for a peaceful retreat, especially those from the Canadian Prairies who wanted a reprieve from the long harsh winters. As the Côtés began to take root in the city, Henri Côté felt it was time to expand the business.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Beacon Lodge” as apartment building in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Beacon, Lodge and apartment.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1945, 1883, 1946—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Beacon, Lodge and apartment providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Beacon Lodge”, the useful work is to connect “apartment building in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20712154. Authority coordinates are 48.410, -123.369. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945, 1883 and 1946.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Beacon Lodge”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Beacon Lodge primary sources, Beacon Lodge archive and Beacon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Beacon Lodge”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Beacon Lodge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.