Description of Historic Place

The McGregor Cottage is a one and one-half storey vernacular side-gabled wood-frame house set at the rear of the lot against the lane in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver, BC.

Heritage Value

Built in 1913, the McGregor Cottage is valued for its association with the pre-World War One era growth and development of the Kitsilano neighbourhood and as a rare and early surviving example of purpose-built rental accommodation influenced in part by the expansion of the area's streetcar system. The Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver experienced a boom in residential development in the early 1900s, when the CPR leased its False Creek trestle and English Bay right- of-way to the B.C. Electric Railway Company (BCER) to provide service to Kitsilano Beach. By 1908, the area was quickly becoming a popular and densely developed neighbourhood and in 1909, this development was further stimulated by the addition of the streetcar line along 4th. Avenue to Alma Street.

The McGregors arrived in Vancouver from Winnipeg in 1894 and originally took up residence in the West End however, Mary McGregor divorced her husband Duncan four years later after an affair was discovered. From the time of the divorce to her death Mary referred to herself as a widow. Mary, son Frederick and daughter Jennie, purchased the lot at the corner of York and Stephens Street from Thomas H. White, the Canadian Northern Railway's chief engineer who owned a number of lots in the area. Title was formally transferred in 1913 and soon after the property was subdivided into four lots. When purchased, the property had a small cottage on the southern edge of the property which Jennie McGregor lived in before it was replaced with a larger Craftsman style house (1622 Stephens) in 1912. That same year the first of the two surviving cottages (1610 Stephens) was constructed with the second cottage (1618 Stephens) built the following year. Both cottages cost 600.00 each. Fredrick and his mother Mary lived at 1618 Stephens for part of 1913, but aside from that short residence the properties were rented to a variety of tenants before being sold in 1925.

In the midst of the surrounding Craftsman-style homes, the modest McGregor Cottage and its earlier neighbour is valued as an example of purpose-built rental cottages, illustrating the speculative nature of development comm

Character-Defining Elements

The key elements that define the heritage character of the McGregor Cottage are its:

- location at the rear of its Stephens Street lot in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver
- continuous residential use for over a century
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its one and one-half storey height and side-gabled roofline
- wood-frame construction with narrow lap siding and simple trim
- partially enclosed porch across the west elevation
- variety of original window openings and early window assemblies
- one internal, central red brick chimney