Description of Historic Place

Lambrick House is a one-and-one-half storey wood-frame Colonial Bungalow, with a full open front verandah. It is set in a mature landscape within the boundaries of Lambrick Park, in the Gordon Head area of Saanich.

Heritage Value

The heritage significance of Lambrick House is associated with its development within its neighbourhood context. Gordon Head is bordered on the north and east by Haro Strait and on the west by Blenkinsop Valley and Mount Douglas. First settled by farmers, starting with James Todd in 1852, Gordon Head became famous for its strawberries and then its daffodils. In 1921, city water service was brought to Gordon Head, leading to a proliferation of greenhouses and vegetable farming. Since the 1950s, the area has gradually been developed with single-family housing.

Lambrick House is of heritage importance for its association with Arthur Graham Lambrick and Clara Lambrick, for whom Lambrick Park is named. Arthur Lambrick first acquired four hectares of the land adjacent to the house in 1925 and began a career in dairy farming, which continued for forty years. Gradually he accumulated eighteen hectares including the house. Lambrick was a well-respected farmer and eventually became chairman of the Vancouver Island Milk Producers' Association. He was also well-known for his service to the community, and served two terms as Reeve. In 1966, Lambrick sold the farm to the District of Saanich, which created the park. The house is now used for integrated recreation for the disabled.

Lambrick House is also of value for its connection to Luke and Madge Pither, who owned the property from 1909. Pither was a successful businessman and entrepreneur in Victoria where he was well-known for his wholesale liquor business, Pither and Leiser. He then established a model poultry farm on twenty-one hectares, which was renowned in the local farming community. After Luke Pither's death, the land was sold piece by piece to Arthur Lambrick until, by the mid-1940s, Lambrick owned all the land and the house. The association of the house and land with farming is valuable as a demonstration of the role of agriculture in the fabric of the social and economic history of Saanich.

The house is significant in exhibiting an architectural style that demonstrates the values and aesthetics of its era. It is a Colonial Bungalow, a style modeled on precedents in British India, with details consistent with the prevelant Arts and Crafts style of the period. This style was particularly favoured in southern Vancouver Island, which was a retirement haven for Colonial civil servants.

Source: Heritage Planning Files, District of Saanich

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Lambrick House include its:
- location in Lambrick Park
- form, scale and massing
- fieldstone foundations and cedar shingle siding
- Colonial Bungalow styling, including a full open front verandah with chamfered square columns on fieldstone piers, and a hipped roof with hipped roof dormers on three sides.
- deep eaves with flat eave brackets.