Description of Historic Place

Located on a prominent corner of Pleasant Valley Road, the Mohr House is Vernon’s only example of a high-style Second Empire residence. It is a one-and-one-half-storey house with a mansard roof and dormer windows.

Heritage Value

The Mohr House is significant as a striking, rare, and intact example of a Second Empire residence. Built in 1893, it features a mansard roof with seven gabled dormer windows. The form of the building is rectangular, with a dominant bay with a mansard roof and two dormers. A recessed bay contains a single dormer window. Other Second Empire design details include the shallow roof overhang, pairs of eave brackets and the round-headed gables on the dormer windows. The house is clad in drop siding and a variety of decorative boards, including panels of vertical beveled siding. There are several bay windows with flat roofs.

The Second Empire style became the official style for federal buildings in Canada in the 1870s and 1880s. Important examples that were contemporary to the Mohr house include the Langevin Block facing Parliament Hill (the Prime Minister’s Offices, 1884-1889) and the Quebec Parliament Buildings (1886). The best-known British Columbia example is the Custom House in Victoria (1873-75). As a residential style, Second Empire had peaked in the United States by 1885. In Canada, the style was popular in parts of the Maritimes, but there are few residential examples in western Canada.

The Mohr House is also notable for its association with its original owner, C.E. Mohr, who had migrated from Ontario around 1891. Mohr was a woodturner at Smith and Clerin’s sawmill at the time of the building’s construction. It is believed Mohr built the house himself. By 1898, the Vernon Directory identified him as a carpenter. The house has had many subsequent owners. Recently the house, rehabilitated into a dentist office, now has its main entry facing Pleasant Valley Road.

Source: City of Vernon Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Mohr House include its:
- one-and-one-half-storey rectangular scale and massing
- prominent location at a curve of Pleasant Valley Road
- mansard roof
- gabled dormer windows
- spindlework decoration
- shallow overhanging roof with paired Italianate eave brackets
- fenestration, including double-hung windows and bay windows
- surface materials, including drop siding and panels of vertical beveled siding