Description of Historic Place

The Five Acre Farm consists of a modest residence, outbuildings and acreage located in one of Nanaimo's oldest neighbourhoods, adjacent to the downtown core. The historic place consists of the buildings and acreage.

Heritage Value

The Five Acre Farm site is exceptionally significant as the only recognized, intact acreage in one of British Columbia's earliest planned communities. In 1884, Samuel Robins, Superintendent of the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company, purchased Harewood Estates, a large parcel of land between Nanaimo and the base of Mount Benson. Robins subdivided the area into five-acre lots and made them available to mining families as homesteads at affordable prices. Robins envisioned farming as a way for miners to provide for themselves whenever coal markets were depressed. This property is one of the few remaining original 'Five Acres' farms. The farm, including the acreage, house, barn, outbuildings and orchards, stands in stark contrast to the small city lots that surround it in an area that, over time, has lost most of its original rural character.

The sole farm acreage in an area of single-family dwellings on small lots, the Five Acre Farm is a highly visible and well-loved community landmark.

Source:City of Nanaimo, Development Services Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Five Acre Farm include:
-all of the elements of a vernacular farm grouping including the acreage, residence, barn, outbuildings, orchard and any other remaining elements of a working farm.
- the location in what was the 1884 Harewood Estates subdivision, now largely redeveloped as single family residential lots.