Description du lieu patrimonial

The Tunstall House is a one and one-half storey, wood-frame, side-gabled Craftsman style house, with a shed dormer at the front. The residence is located on the north side of West 5th Avenue between Balsam and Larch Streets in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Valeur patrimoniale

The Tunstall House holds social and cultural, historical and aesthetic heritage values.

Built in 1911, it is valued for its its connection to pre-World War I development of the Kitsilano neighbourhood. The first four houses appeared on this block in 1911 and by the end of 1912 the block was over half filled with 12 houses, including the subject house built in September of 1911. It is a result of a time of rapid expansion of residential development in the neighbourhood.

The association of the Tunstall House with its builder and first owner Dr. Simon J. Tunstall and with its architects Grant & Henderson, in addition to being the long-term residence for only three families since its construction are important to its historical values.The house was commissioned by Dr. Simon J. Tunstall for his wife Marjorie Browne. Residing in the West End, Tunstall was a well-known doctor who was very active in the local community in the early 1900s - as president of the Canadian Medical Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC, the St. Andrew's and the Caledonian Societies, and a key member of the first City Hospital Board starting in 1903. In addition the house is valued for its association with its designers, acclaimed architectural firm Grant & Henderson, who had previously designed an office building at the corner of Dunsmuir and Granville for Dr. Tunstall, known as the Tunstall Block (1902 and 1909). Grant & Henderson were a local partnership (1903-1914) that completed a remarkable number of commissions in Vancouver and New Westminster including high-profile projects such as Vancouver's General Hospital (Heather Pavilion), Carnegie Library, numerous commercial, institutional and sacred buildings and several estates in Shaughnessy Heights and the West End. The building's significance is augmented for being one of two known surviving Kitsilano homes designed by the firm - with the only four other known designs having been lost to demolition.

Another aspect of its historical value is being home to only three families after its construction, with a few interim tenants between sales. Marjorie (nee Tunstall) & John H. Browne were the first residents of the house from 1912-1919 after which in 1921, this house became a 41-year home to the Torrance family. In 1965 the house became the 50-year home to electrician Gerardus J. and Ria Van Looy. It was Ria Van Looy who recently sold the subject property to its current owner.

Aesthetically the house holds value for its traditional Craftsman style in an area of predominantly vernacular buildings. The house is an architect's variation on a vernacular Craftsman design, a style prevalent in Vancouver from 1904-1930, and which best represents the historic houses of the Kitsilano neighbourhood. Its a rare example of an exclusively shingle-clad Craftsman in Vancouver - including its front-porch columns - the house presents several typical elements of the style in its overhanging side-gabled roof, deep-set full-width porch and sleeping porch (now enclosed).

Éléments caractéristiques

The character-defining elements of the Tunstall House include its:

- Location on West 5th Avenue in the Kitsilano neighbourhood.
- Continuous residential use.
- Residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its setback with front and back yards, and its one-and-one-half storey height plus basement.
- Asymmetrical elevations.
- Main floor set nearly a full floor above grade.
- Side-gabled main roof with deep eaves, tongue and groove soffits and exposed rafter beam brackets in gable ends; shed-roofed front dormer with (now enclosed) sleeping porch.
- Deep-set full-width porch with flared ground to roof support columns clad in cedar shingles; front porch wood railing with square baluster pattern with alternating thickness every three spindles; inset front porch stairs accessed from the side.
- Projecting bay with shed-roof on the eastern elevation, main floor.
- Wood windows with art glass on the main floor level, adjacent to front door, on western elevation on either side of the chimney and in the eastern elevation bay; wood windows with divided lights (upper sashes only where double-hung) in original openings on eastern, western and rear elevations; capped wood trim and projecting sills around all windows and doors.
- Wood shingle cladding on the entire exterior plane - ending with a slight flare at the bottom.
- End-wall brick chimney on the western elevation.
- Glazed wood front door with vertical panels.