Description of Historic Place

The Connacher Residence, located on East Broadway in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, is a two and one-half storey house characterized by its Victorian style of architecture and its full-width front verandah with hipped roof.

Heritage Value

The Connacher Residence, constructed in 1895, is valued for its association with the early development of the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood and its modest Victorian architectural style, featuring a variety of decorative millwork.

The Connacher Residence is valued as one of the oldest extant houses in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver. As Vancouver's first community south of False Creek, the growth of Mount Pleasant was spurred by its connection to downtown via streetcar service across the Westminster Avenue bridge. Pockets of development occurred throughout the area, which offered convenient access to the city, but were far removed from the unpleasant environment of the industrial waterfront. By the turn of the twentieth century, Mount Pleasant was home to a variety of industries, institutions and commercial businesses, as well as a booming residential community boasting many social amenities.

The Connacher Residence illustrates the wave of residential development in Mount Pleasant through the final years of the nineteenth century and was originally home to a series of working class citizens, beginning with Robert Connacher, a retired contractor, in 1895. Reflecting the resurgent economy of the interwar period, the house and neighbouring lot were purchased by machinist Alex Videck in 1920. Videck had a machinist shop constructed at the rear of the site along Carolina Street that same year and in 1926, he moved this house one lot west and constructed a new mixed-use structure on the corner, which contained two apartments on the second floor, one of which Videck would occupy until his death in 1969. The Connacher Residence remains an excellent example of early housing in Mount Pleasant and the cluster of buildings of which it is a part is representative of the ongoing evolution of the neighbourhood.

The Connacher Residence is a modest example of Victorian architecture in Vancouver. The relatively flamboyant Victorian-era styles were popularized during the late nineteenth century and attributed to British architect Richard Norman Shaw; the style often included ornate elements and elaborate detailing. The Connacher Residence features spindlework, such as its lathe turned porch columns and newel posts, as well as drop siding and scalloped cedar shingles.

Character-Defining Elements

The elements that define the heritage character of the Connacher Residence are its:

- location along East Broadway in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver;
- continuous residential use since 1895;
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its two and one-half storey height, front-gabled roof, and full-width open verandah with hipped roof and off-centre entryway accessed by a flight of stairs;
- wood-frame construction with wooden drop siding and corner boards;
- modest Victorian-style design features, including its slim profile, lathe-turned spindlework columns and open balustrade on the full-width verandah with lathe-turned spindlework newel posts, and cedar shingles in the gable end with brick and scalloped patterns;
- original fenestration such as original double-hung wooden-frame and sash assemblies featuring wooden horns, as well as the front bay window featuring flashed glass;
- original one storey front door trim and multi-pane coloured glass transom; and
- one internal red brick chimney with corbelled brick cap.