Description of Historic Place

The Sutcliffe Residence is a one-and-a-half storey Queen Anne Revival wood-frame house located on Penticton Avenue in Penticton, British Columbia. The house is distinctive for its hipped roof, original lap siding and shingle cladding, and a prominent corner turret.

Heritage Value

The Sutcliffe Residence, built in 1912, is valued as a superior example of the Queen Anne Revival style of domestic architecture. Constructed a decade after the first Queen Anne Revival houses appeared in Vernon, the Sutcliffe Residence is typical of Penticton's late Victorian high style houses, designed to enhance the social standing of its owners. It is a modest design, lacking the full tower and decorative detailing of its North Okanagan antecedents. However, its design is crisp, with a steeply-pitched hip roof, shed dormer, and corner turret with upper and lower storey bay windows. The front of the house is clad with shingle, while the recent rear addition is clad with lap siding. The turret is crowned with a decorative finial. It is likely that the original owner, William Trotter, who was a carpenter and worked on the Incola Hotel, played a part in the construction of the house.

The Sutcliffe Residence is notable as an early example of the conversion of agricultural lots on the outskirts of Penticton to town lots. The property was part of a subdivision of ten acre lots laid out in 1906 to the south of the town site. The area was originally planted in orchards but after a severe frost killed many of the orchards in the winter of 1908-9, the lots on this block were subdivided into small town lots in 1910.

SOURCE: City of Penticton Civic File

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Sutcliffe Residence include its:

-prominent location on the south side of Penticton Avenue with generous sized lot
-distinctive Queen Anne Revival style, including the massing of the residence, steeply-pitched hip roof and corner turret with bay windows and finial
-double hung windows
-shingle and lap siding cladding
-mature trees and gardens
-field stone wall and gate
-wrap-around side porch
-front porch with shingle-style supports and cladding