Description of Historic Place

This residence is a one and one-half storey Craftsman style house, notable for its side-gabled roof with projecting front gable. It is one of six equally spaced single-family homes that were built at the same time along Cumberland Crescent, at the crest of a steep hill with panoramic views to the south. Infill houses of a similar scale were later built between each of the original houses. There are several mature cedars on the lot with a mature hedge and a bed of shrubs at the front property line that define the transition from public to private space. The lot extends back the full length from Cumberland Crescent to West 19th Street.

Heritage Value

842 Cumberland Crescent is significant as evidence of early suburban development during the Boom Years in North Vancouver, prior to the outbreak of the First World War. It was built as part of a row of six speculative houses that demonstrate the continued population growth on the North Shore. These houses were designed in 1911 by architect Herbert Mayer Barker for the McAlpine Robertson Construction Company, a Vancouver-based company that worked across the province on projects that included the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (1915-1918) in Saanich. Scottish-born and trained, Barker (1877-1942) commenced his practice in Vancouver in 1910, but returned to Scotland during the First World War. During his time here, Barker was a resident of the North Shore and lived briefly in one of these houses after they were completed. Five of these houses retain a high degree of integrity and together they represent the typical appearance of a low-density residential street of the Edwardian era. There is an overall unified appearance provided by the common architectural vocabulary, but subtle differences in the individual designs of the houses provide a rich and varied streetscape.

This house is valued as a very good example of the influence of the Craftsman style, the most popular housing style in the Lower Mainland in the early twentieth century. The Craftsman style was typified by rational space planning, the use of natural materials and a mix of traditional design elements inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, such as picturesque rooflines, decorative brackets and a rich textural contrast of siding and shingles.

Source: Heritage Planning Files, City of North Vancouver

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of 842 Cumberland Crescent include its:
- spatial relationship to the other houses in the original development scheme
- location at the crest of a steep hill, with views to the south across Burrard Inlet
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its one and one-half storey plus full basement height and compound, rectangular plan
- wood-frame construction
- side-gabled roof with extended slope over the front entrance, with a shed dormer and a front-gabled projection
- elements of the Craftsman style such as: cedar shingle cladding with bellcast flare on the upper level, contrasted with lower level narrow lapped wooden siding, with belt course between; board-and-batten siding at the foundation level; triangular eave brackets; open eaves with exposed rafter tails; and inset front entry
- additional exterior details such as; front entrance with original panelled door and single sidelight; two internal red brick chimneys; and window surrounds with splayed crowns
- regular fenestration with multiple-assembly multi-paned wooden-sash casement windows
- associated landscape elements, such as the mature cedars on the property and shrub massing at the front, defining the transition from public to private space
- early associated garage with low-pitched gabled roof