The Georgia Medical-Dental Building at the corner of Georgia and Hornby Streets was designed by McCarter Nairne and Partners in 1929. At about the tenth story level, the building was graced with three 11 feet high, terracotta statues depicting a First World War Nursing Sister, one on each of the building’s three visible corners. Architects John Young McCarter and George Colvil Nairne both served overseas during the war. McCarter was seriously wounded and credited the Nursing Sisters with saving his life. They founded their architectural firm in 1921 and when they obtained the contract for the Medical-Dental Building, they decided to honour the Nursing Sisters. The statues were designed by Joseph Francis Watson.
In 1989, the building was demolished to make way for a new 23-storey office tower. A public campaign was raised to save the original statues for the new building. However, as these proved both extremely heavy and difficult to remove, replicas had to be made. When the new tower opened in 1991, the replicas were mounted at about the third-storey level, easily visible from the streets. The original statues were purchased and restored by Discovery Parks. They were installed on the Technology Enterprises Facility III on the University of British Columbia campus.
Mario Tinucci of Ital-Decor arranged to make the castings so that new fiberglass figures could be made. One of the originals (the one least damaged) was re-molded to make it whole, then fiberglass replicas were made. The patched original is on display in Cathedral Place. A fiberglass replica of the head is also on display in the lobby of Cathedral Place. In 1992, the Vancouver Museum took the least-damaged head from one of the broken statues for safe-keeping; this was patched, repaired and is held for display by the museum.
