Heritage Register
Fairfield

1009 Southgate Street

Built 1912
Heritage-Designated 2020

For: J.O. Dunford & F. Strang

Architect: Harold J. Rous-Cullin

ARCHITECTURE:

1009 Southgate Street is a flat, rectangular lot on the south side of Southgate Street, which measures60 feet wide and 120 feet deep. It is located near the southeast corner of the intersection of Vancouver Street and Southgate Street in the Victoria's Fairfield neighbourhood. Occupying the property is a two-storey, Foursquare-style apattment building constmcted in 1912 and containing four strata residential units. The building is boxy and rectangular, with a medium pitch hipped roof and a dom1er window facing the stree. The front elevation features recessed balconies at the second storey framed with decorative beams, railings and spindles. It has porches at the ground floor that are open at the front and side. Centred between the porches and balconies are three diamond pattern leaded glass windows extending from the base of the second floor to the roofline. Beneath the windows are a pair of doors accessed from a projecting covered porch with turned wood columns. The fa<;ade includes a wide belt course dividing the two storeys. The building features many Craftsman details including open eaves with exposed rafter tails. There is a driveway to the immediate west of the building providing access to a rear yard parking area. The west side wall of the ground floor was pushed in slightly to create space for the driveway when it was converted to strata units in 1997.

Designed in 19 l l by architect Harold Joseph Rous Cullin and constrncted by John 0. Dunford, of Willian1 Dunford & Son and James F. Strang of Hooper-Strang Co., the building has aesthetic value as a rare, surviving example of a Foursquare Edwardian Vernacular style multi-residential building. It incorporates Craftsman design elements inspired by the British Arts & Crafts movement. The Foursquare style was more affordable than the more decorative Victorian and Classical styles, and was commonly used in streetcar suburbs on long narrow lots. The simple symmetrical exterior design and floor plan characterizing the Foursquare style conveys a division of the house into qum1ers on each floor to accommodate a home's various rooms. However, in the case of this particular house, each "quarter" was in fact a "flat" or apartment - two on each floor, running the full front to back length of the house, each with its own living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, and with each "flat" having very similar layout, illustrated in the original plan.

The building is a good example of the work of Harold Joseph Rous Cullin, who was born in 1875 in Liverpool, England. He was a member of the London Rifle Brigade and officer in the Royal Engineers. He immigrated to Canada in 1904 and until World War l specialized in designing public and private buildings and homes in Victoria. His projects consisted of many public buildings, including seven schools, commercial blocks and apartments as well as private homes. Among the latter are iconic heritage houses at 25 Cook Street (Inglenook, 19 l l ), 1134 Dallas Road (1913) and 806 Linden Avenue (Hume Cottage, 1907). Cullin served overseas as a Lieutenant Colonel in WWI. Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, he was deemed a surplus officer and returned to B.C., where he resumed his architecture career, although mostly in the B.C. interior.

CHARACTER DEFINING ELEMENTS:

• boxy and rectangular massing
• the projecting covered landing on the front elevation, including turned wood columns, balusters and pickets
• cedar shingle cladding and the wide belt course between the first and second storeys
• medium-low pitched hipped roof with a dormer window
• open eaves with exposed rafter tails
• decorative beam framing the top of each porch and balcony
• set of three diamond leaded glass windows extending from the base of the second floor to just below the roofline
• original and intact porches and balconies complete with mostly original rails and spindles
• the dormer, with its three diamond leaded glass windows.



ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fairfield History

• Fairfield Heritage Register

• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee