Description of Historic Place

The Margaret Marsh House is a hipped roof, one and one-half storey, half-timbered cottage with crawl space and a Scottish front dormer. It is part of a heritage cluster of single-family residences facing Windsor Park. The residence is screened by a laurel hedge and surrounded by many mature trees and shrubs on a lot that retains the original, custom-built garage. The Margaret Marsh House has a long street frontage which helps to define the edge of Windsor Park.

Heritage Value

The Margaret Marsh House, built in 1927, is valued as an example of the work of local architect and native British Columbian, Samuel Maclure (1860-1929), and is a late example of a British Arts and Crafts residence, an architectural style favoured by the wealthy between 1910 and 1925. Maclure developed this style into a distinct regional identity, with pronounced horizontality and use of local materials. One of the features of this house is its highly decorative front entrance, inset with particularly fine full-length side lights and glazing, all of which are leaded and stained. Another prominent feature of the home is the variation of the Scottish dormer above the front entrance, an architectural element rarely employed on the West Coast.

Samuel Maclure is closely identified with the predominantly British Arts and Crafts style of the domestic architecture he designed for prominent English businessmen on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. He gained international recognition during his forty-year career, with close to five hundred commissions. Maclure utilized many stylistic influences and was able to adapt his use of indigenous materials with versatility. Many of Maclure’s buildings with their beautiful and functional interiors have been recognized as masterworks and are considered part of the cultural heritage of British Columbia.

Margaret Marsh commissioned Maclure to design this home for her as a new and smaller version of the dwelling located directly across Windsor Park at 2450 Windsor Road, which she had shared with her estranged husband. This cottage makes a significant contribution to the ambience of the Windsor Park neighbourhood. The single family homes situated on Currie, Windsor and Transit Roads, which form three sides of the park, are of similar scale and define the park edge, creating a sense of continuity.

Source: Corporation of the District of Oak Bay

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of Margaret Marsh House include its:
- views to Windsor Park and to other nearby heritage homes;
- location across the park from 2450 Windsor Road, a larger version of this residence;
- form, scale and massing;
- hipped roof;
- concrete foundation and wood frame construction;
- style details such as exposed rafter ends, vertical half timbering;
- exterior architectural elements: inset front door, two corbelled brick chimneys (one interior; one exterior), Scottish dormer above the front entrance;
- leaded side lights and glazed wooden front door, multi-pane leaded casement windows; some in multiple assembly, windows with central pivot, rectangular bay window;
- interior features: woodwork including pocket doors, window seat, wide floorboards, picture rails, exposed ceiling beams, fir floors, coal burning fireplace with original tile and cast iron screen, fireplace between kitchen and living room with exposed brick on kitchen side, original radiators, light fixtures;
- landscape features: original garage with exposed rafter tails and multi-paned glazing, and stonework on the property