Description of Historic Place

33 Sylvan Lane is a two-storey, stucco-clad Art Moderne house with a lower level garage. It is set close to the road on a steep rocky site in Oak Bay, British Columbia.

Heritage Value

Built in 1941, this house is valued as a fine example of the Art Moderne style, exhibiting the clean, spare, unornamented hallmarks of the style. Art Moderne grew out of Art Deco, but is more streamlined, with ornamentation usually limited to string courses and a zig-zag motif. Buildings in the Art Moderne style are characterized by horizontality, curves, ribbon windows, flat roofs, and stucco. The style was popular in Europe, less so in North America, for a relatively short period of time in the late 1930s and through the Second World War.

Built by J. Hanzlik, a Polish architect and builder who had come to Victoria from California, 33 Sylvan Lane is an integral component of a cluster of Art Moderne houses in this rocky area of Oak Bay. This cluster, comprising houses along Denison Road and nearby King George Terrace, represents a rare grouping in the Greater Victoria area.

Source: District of Oak Bay Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of 33 Sylvan Lane include its:
- setting on a steep slope with views of McNeill Bay, Anderson Hill, Mount Baker and the Coast Mountains
- location on the lot, with minimal setback from the street
- form, scale, and massing; flat roof
- frame construction on a cantilevered concrete slab, stucco cladding
- style details such as ribbon windows, curved walls, curved canopy over front door, zig-zag pattern under string course (horizontal band), flat roof, decorative rainwater hopper
- exterior architectural details such as two internal chimneys
- regular fenestration, windows mostly fixed, three casement windows, curved assembly; corner windows, bull-nosed muntins (strips separating glass panes)
- original interior features including circular entrance hall with tray ceiling, and stylized letter "H" in linoleum in floor; curved chimney breast with original peach-coloured mirror built in above, and a light fixture under glass in a raised area of mantelpiece; built-in recessed oval display/china cabinet with glass pocket doors; swing door to kitchen, with bull-nosed profile on both vertical edges, and a black Vitriolite hand plate; kitchen cabinets and fixtures; bathroom; mahogany handrails; fir floors
- landscape features such as winding steps to main entrance, rubble-stone retaining wall, rockery planting