Description of Historic Place

The Willow Residence is a one and half storey vernacular front gabled house with full porch situated on the west side of Carolina Street at the lane between 10th and 11th Avenues in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver. BC.

Heritage Value

The Willow Residence holds aesthetic, and social and cultural heritage values.

The site is valued for its vernacular design. Built in 1908 and moved to Carolina Street in 1912, the Willow Residence has value as an intact example of an Edwardian-era vernacular house design built by a variety of local builders throughout many early Vancouver neighbourhoods.

It is an example of the development and the relaxed approach to subdivision tied to the expansion of public transportation and housing demand in the economic boom before the First World War. Further value is found with the subdivision of the end of block lots into four smaller lots, an action taken by many local builders such as Joseph Vernon to maximize the opportunities presented by this expansion of nearby public transportation and the increasing demand for housing during the time. This practice also reflects the lack of strict planning and building regulations that give many older neighbourhoods their overall character.

Additionally it is an example of the resourcefulness of a local contractor and the lost art of house moving. The act of moving the house from its original location in the 500 block of East 10th. Avenue to its present location as one of the few documented and surviving house moves, once a fairly common activity in the early city. Conducted by professional firms and undertaken by the builders themselves, house moving underlines the resourcefulness of early builders
and contractors.

Character-Defining Elements

The elements that define the Willow Residence are:

- its continuous residential use
- its residential form, scale, massing and details of a front gabled vernacular house including:
- its one and half storey height and above ground basement
- full porch with canted bay window and off set entrance
- decorative caps on square porch posts
- tongue and groove porch ceiling with moulding between ceiling and siding
- single storey gabled extension at the rear for the kitchen
- drop siding with frieze board and moulding below closed soffits and wide trim boards at the corners, horizontal trim above upper windows
- original window openings, trim and sills
- single storey square bay with hip roof on the north side with double window openings, supported on open knee braces, trim boards at the corners
- brick chimney on the north side