Description of Historic Place

Goward House is a large two-storey wood-frame Colonial Bungalow with generous hipped dormers, set in wooded grounds in the Cadboro Bay area of Saanich.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of Goward House is associated with its development within its neighbourhood context. Cadboro Bay is bounded on three sides by water, and contains three neighbourhoods: the Village, Queenswood, and Ten Mile Point. Historically, the Cadboro Bay shoreline was home to the Songhees native people. The bay was named in 1837 after the Hudson's Bay Company brig 'Cadboro'. By 1850, seventeen employees of the HBC farm lived in the area. The flat, inland portions of Cadboro Bay developed as farms, and the area around Cadboro Bay beach became a seaside resort as early as 1900. City water mains were extended to the Village in the 1920s, and the surrounding farmland was gradually subdivided and developed as residential property.

Goward House is important for its connection to the Goward family, who occupied it for nearly eighty years. The house was built in 1908 by Bernard Goward and wife Mary (née Beale) Goward, who made a substantial contribution to the design, along with George Phillips, a friend and architectural designer. Owen, the eldest child of Bernard and Mary, and his wife, Elizabeth, occupied the house from 1946 and sold it to the Corporation of Saanich in 1973, although the family continued to occupy it until 1986.

The house was designed in the style of a British Colonial bungalow, reflecting the Goward's time in India. Architect Harold Joseph Rous Cullin and contractor A.H. Mitchell were responsible for an addition of two rooms in 1912. A California redwood tree, grown from seeds that the Gowards brought back from California in 1913, still stands on the property.

Goward House continues to be of cultural and artistic value to the community. It is now managed by the Goward House Society, a non-profit organization, which operates it as a senior's activity centre. In addition to offering art classes and encouraging artist groups, the facility holds art exhibitions on a revolving monthly basis, including artists from throughout the region.

Source: Heritage Planning Files, District of Saanich

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of Goward House include its:
- form, scale and massing
- deep eaves
- generous verandah
- park-like location
- mature plantings, including the redwood tree planted in 1913