Description of Historic Place

The Jarvis House is a 1 1/2 storey Tudor-revival style home with front gable roof, located in the South Foul Bay/Windsor neighbourhood. The house is of wood frame construction, with a concrete foundation and full basement, set in a mature garden.

Heritage Value

The Jarvis House is valued as an architect-designed home, set in a middle-class neighbourhood, and built during the pre-World War I building boom after the Municipality of Oak Bay was incorporatied in 1906. Constructed in 1914, this home is a good example of the English-oriented Tudor-revival style, popular for residential architecture in Oak Bay at that time. Consciously different from many of the American-inspired Craftsman houses, the design reflects Oak Bay's predominantly English origins.

Set in a mature garden, the original curving layout of the front walk is part of the designers' intent to project a gentle, more rural representation of a residence. The placement of the home, set back from the front lot line is typical of the area, and the open, unfenced garden is supportive of the design of the house.

The designers were brother architects Percy Leonard James and Douglas James, who designed many Tudor-revival buildings in Oak Bay and Victoria. The home features a steep front-gabled roof, with board and plaster cladding on the main and upper floors and shingles on the lower level, and porches on each corner of the main facade.

The unique floor plan and original interior design elements are valuable as an example of the James' pre-WWI work.

Source: Corporation of the District of Oak Bay

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the character of the Jarvis House include:
- square massing with front gable roof and two shed dormers
- Tudor-revival architectural elements with shingle cladding on lower level and board and plaster on the main and upper floors
- two porches on main facade (one altered), with shallow Tudor arch detail
- two prominent brick chimneys
- original floor layout
- interior features include original and restored fir panelling and trim throughout main floor; beamed ceilings; three original fireplaces - Den fireplace with 3"x3" green tiles: Master Bedroom Fireplace with 3"x3" teal blue; Living room fireplace with original brick set in an Inglenook
- configuration of stairway opening into upper hallway. Originally open to the living room, the stairway was authentically partitioned off at an early, but unknown, date with a wood and leaded glass screen wall.
- the mature garden setting