Description of Historic Place

223 Robert Street is an ornate one and one-half storey wooden residence designed in the Queen Anne style. Built in 1905, its picturesque quality is enhanced by its location in a residential cluster containing several houses of similar style, scale and age. The house occupies a lot located near the waterfront in the Victoria West area of Victoria, British Columbia. The formal recognition refers to the building on its lot.

Heritage Value

223 Robert Street was designated a National Historic Site of Canada because it is a particularly good example of the Queen Anne Revival Style, as expressed in domestic architecture.

On the West Coast, hallmarks of this architectural style, including cornertowers and rich decorative detailing, were occasionally applied to wooden picturesque cottage designs with striking results. The house built for James McLearen Muirhead in 1905 is an outstanding example, replete with an octagonal corner tower affording ocean views and a rich array of exterior and interior wood detailing supplied by the Muirhead family’s local planing mill.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, November 1990.

Character-Defining Elements

The key elements relating to the heritage value of this site include:
-its siting on its original city lot and its location near the waterfront;
-the relationship between the house and the waterfront;
-its materials and forms, all of which are consistent with domestic architecture in the
Queen Anne Style, including its rectangular massing under a hipped roof, elaborated by a corner tower, projecting gable-roofed bay, brick chimneys, decorative bracketing and eaves detailing, varied fenestration, and exterior wall surfaces;
- surviving elements of the original interior plan and detailing, notably panelling and joinery in the main hall and parlour, four fireplaces, carved columns, ceiling plasterwork, stained glass and mouldings.