Description of Historic Place

The McCarty House is a two-and-one-half-storey Western Canadian Queen Anne style residence located at 400 Mackenzie Avenue, at the corner of Mackenzie Avenue and Third Street in Revelstoke.

Heritage Value

The value of the McCarty House lies in its connection with the first mayor of Revelstoke, Frank McCarty. Florence (Frank) McCarty was born in Wisconsin in 1854. He and his wife Mary came to Revelstoke in 1883, following the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) construction from the east. By 1889, they were operating a boarding house on the hill above the CPR station. Before a Roman Catholic church was built in 1893, mass was said in the boarding house. In 1890, McCarty's butcher shop and ice and cold storage building was the largest building in Revelstoke. After it was destroyed by fire in 1895, McCarty built a new store to replace the lost one. He also managed the P. Burns and Co. butcher shop - later to become one of the largest meat packing companies in western Canada. Mr. McCarty had shares in local mining companies and became a part owner of the Revelstoke Navigation Co., which built and operated the S.S. Revelstoke. In March 1899, Frank McCarty was elected the first mayor of Revelstoke. He built this house in 1900 and had it sited so he could view his business interests from its upper storey.

There is also value in the Western Canadian Queen Anne styling. Between the 1880s and the beginning of World War One, British Columbia grew tremendously in wealth and population. Fortunes were built upon gold, timber, coal and transportation. Architects and builders came to the region from England, the rest of Canada and the American west coast, bringing with them a variety of architectural styles. Their buildings reflected an anglophile stance. The British Columbia form of the Queen Anne Revival style served as a bridge between the early wood frame homes of the pioneer families and the West Coast bungalow so prevalent in the 1920s. BC Queen Anne houses are generally simpler in composition than eastern forms, with a narrower range of historical motifs and window types. Deep overhanging eaves were also common - a logical adaptation to the climate of drenching rains. Queen Anne features which were retained include corner towers and massive stone foundations.

John Kernaghan, the builder, was known for constructing several of the significant buildings in early Revelstoke. His commissions included a large two-storey commercial building at 112-114 Mackenzie Avenue (1898), the Red Cross Drug Store at 120 Mackenzie Avenue (1902), the Imperial Bank of Canada (1904), the Drill Hall (1902), and one of the earliest covered curling rinks in Canada (1899). He also built the CPR Hotel at Field in 1903.

Source: City of Revelstoke Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the McCarty House include its:
- form, scale and massing
- characteristics of the Western Canadian Queen Anne style, including steeply pitched hipped roof with dormers, bay windows and balconies, thick stone foundation of local rock, decorative shingle work on the north and south gables, and cornice
- original attic window on south side
- asymmetrical design
- masonry chimneys
- pattern of fenestration
- relationship between the house and the street
- prominent corner location on a rise of land