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The first mention of Richard Cheshyre Janion in Victoria was in the Victoria Colonist in March of 1859:
“The American brigantine Augenrite, Studley, arrived yesterday … from Honolulu with cargo consigned to Mr. R.C. Janion.”
Janion imported liquors for liquor merchants, and cleared cargoes from many parts of the world. He formed a partnership with another prominent early Victoria resident, Henry Rhodes. The two owned a dock in the upper Inner Harbour where sailing vessels cleared their cargoes for Victoria’s wholesale houses. Janion’s original Store Street building was a two storey brick building constructed in 1862.
The Janion-Rhodes partnership, the fourth oldest “house” in British Columbia, was dissolved in 1874. The original Store Street building was replaced in 1891 by a hotel named The Janion. The hotel ranked among the best in the city, with 50 large bedrooms. The Colonist reported at the time that it was “all filled up in the most attractive and substantial manner and filled with many comforts not generally seen in ordinary hotel rooms. Every room is thoroughly heated and well lighted with electricity, while large windows open into each room in the building, giving from all directions a view almost unequalled in any part of the city.”
After many years standing derelict, The Janion is currently being re-developed as high-design, high-efficiency modern condominiums.
R.C. Janion died in Liverpool, England at 66 years of age.
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