Description of Historic Place

The Lyman House is a two-storey house located mid-block on the south side of 2 Avenue NE (formerly Harris Street) in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. It is easily identified by its barn-shaped Dutch Colonial Revival roof.

Heritage Value

The Lyman House, likely built in 1908, is valued primarily for its social and cultural significance, and particularly for its outstanding aesthetic values.

The house is an outstanding example of a singular design effectively sited and detailed to convey a sense of prominence, contributing to the locally important grouping of houses on Harris Street (now 2 Avenue NE) that together make the street a highly-valued heritage section of the city. With its comparatively rare Dutch Colonial Revival style, the house helps distinguish the street as a place of distinction. It is important for being well-preserved and maintained, exhibiting much of the original exterior material, as well as carefully replicated material: shingle and beveled siding, generous wood trim, wood doors and windows.

The house is important for its sympathetic additions that are compatible with the original house form, materials, and detailing, and is a fine example of active owner interest in the history and character of their house.

The house is culturally significant for its siting on Harris Street (also known as "Snob Hill" and "Mortgage Hill"), for its generous garden, and its form and style which, though more rare in well-to-do middle class neighbourhoods across British Columbia, is found in large numbers in the Lower Mainland.

The Lyman House is important for its association with the developer of this residential area on the hillside. It was built by land speculator I. M. Lyman, who developed the Lyman View subdivision of the Lyman Hill area, marketing it as superior residential property with running water (from a spring uphill on the G. R. Merton property).

Source: City of Salmon Arm, Development Services Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of Lyman House include its:

Site:
- mature plantings and traditional landscaping
- generous yards around the house
- views to town centre and lake beyond

House
- barn-shaped Dutch Colonial Revival roof
- verandah on north (front) façade
- original window bays on east and west façades
- original exterior materials and replicated materials
- original parts of doors and windows, and replicated parts
- hip-roofed dormers with original exposed rafters without facia board, and original tongue-and-groove soffits, original shingle siding, original wood trim and wood windows