Heritage Register
Jubilee

2536 Richmond Avenue

Built c.1906
Heritage-Designated 2021

For: John Hector Garfield Vye

ARCHITECTURE:

The Garfield Vye Residence is a wood-frame one-storey house with Queen Anne Revival style details located on the southwest corner of Richmond Avenue and Haultain Street in Victoria’s North Jubilee neighbourhood. The house is distinguished by its hipped roof with front and side gabled bays and ornate millwork detailing.

The Garfield Vye Residence is valued as an example of the vernacular influence of the Queen Anne Revival style, as characterized by its asymmetrical massing, hipped roofline, corbelled brick chimneys and Carpenter ornamentation. The front façade is distinguished by a bracketed, angled cutaway bay offset by a recessed porch detailed with a ball and spindle frieze between turned posts. Original door and window assemblies are found throughout. The house is clad in double-bevel siding, rubble-stone foundation and a bracketed frieze of vertical tongue and groove boards. Many of the architectural and decorative features remain intact.

Despite its modest scale, the house displays the attention to detail that was lavished on even simple houses of the time, providing a public display of pride and a sign of social status. The house continues to serve its original function and contributes to the heritage character of the North Jubilee neighbourhood.

Key character-defining elements that express the heritage value of the Garfield Vye Residence and that continue to define the character and history of the North Jubilee neighbourhood include:
• original location at the southwest corner of Richmond Road and Haultain Streets on the historic Vye family Richmond Farm and its relationship to other Vye family houses
• continuous residential use

Key elements that define the heritage character of the building’s exterior include:
• residential form, scale, and massing as expressed by its: hipped roof with gabled extensions over front and side angled cutaway bays, inset front porch
• wood-frame construction clad with double-bevel siding
• masonry elements such as a rubble-stone foundation and two internal corbelled red brick chimneys
• Queen Anne Revival style millwork details such as: scroll sawn brackets; ball and spindle frieze between turned porch posts; bracketed frieze of vertical v-joint tongue and groove boards above beltcourse
• fenestration such as: one-over-one double-hung wooden-sash windows, glazed, paneled front door with transom window

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

c.1906-mid 1960s: Tthe Garfield Vye Residence is valued as one of several remaining houses from the historic Richmond Farm and is symbolic of the early pattern of neighborhood settlement as pioneer farms were subdivided for early suburbs.

The Garfield Vye Residence symbolizes the evolution of the North Jubilee neighbourhood from farm land to residential and institutional and makes a significant contribution to the rich and varied streetscapes, which continues today as a mix of residential, commercial and institutional uses.

The building is significant for its associations with the Vye Family, prominent for many years in the Victoria region. In 1882 Alexander and Margaret Vye established the 105 acre Richmond Farm and also operated a stone quarry on the slopes of Mt. Tolmie. As each of their sons married, they built a house on a portion of the farm. The remaining land was subdivided into suburban lots as the area developed along with the construction of the nearby Royal Jubilee Hospital and the streetcar spur along Richmond Avenue to Mt. Tolmie. This house remained in the Vye family until the mid-1960s.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Map of Victoria Heritage Register Properties

• Jubilee History

• Jubilee Heritage Register



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