Description of Historic Place

The Douglas Street Baptist Church is a symmetrical two-storey masonry building located at the north end of Douglas Street, between Roderick and Cloverdale Avenues in the Saanich Core area of Saanich.

Heritage Value

The Douglas Street Baptist Church is valued for its connections to one of the first Baptist congregations in B.C., and because of a community initiative to construct this building during the Edwardian era. During the 1880s, the local Baptist congregation formed the Burnside Baptist Mission and met in private homes, indicating the importance that the community placed on their religious services. The church on Douglas Street was built with donated materials and labour and illustrates the commitment of the Baptist community to the growth and development of their organization. Many prominent locals made donations to the construction of the church. In order to reduce costs, a cheap alternative to the traditional church material of stone was chosen, imitation ashlar concrete block, which was readily available at the time. The Church also displays an eclectic style, with connections to medieval buildings in the "Old Country", including half-timbered gables and crenellated parapets, combined with thin, paired classical columns on the wooden entrance porch.

The Douglas Street Baptist Church is also significant for its association with the growth and development of its neighbourhood context. Saanich Core is directly north of downtown Victoria, and is the administrative heart of Saanich municipality. In the late 1850s, most of the land in Saanich Core was part of Dr. William Fraser Tolmie's 445 hectare Cloverdale Farm. Tolmie was a prominent local surgeon, Hudson's Bay Company officer, politician and major early landowner in this area of Saanich. Subdivision of his land began in 1890 with one acre parcels and the land boom of 1910-14 established a pattern of residential lots, associated services and community institutions.

Source: Heritage Planning Files, District of Saanich

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Douglas Street Baptist Church include its:
- prominent corner location on a major road
- form, scale and massing
- symmetrical front facade
- imitation-ashlar concrete block construction
- roughcast stucco and half-timbering in the gables
- gabled entrance with crenellated parapets on each side
- wood-sash leaded windows at the main floor front of the building
- thin, paired classical columns on the wooden entrance front