Description of Historic Place

1512 Beach Drive is a one and one-half storey Victorian Cottage with a steeply-pitched hipped roofline, located in the Oak Bay Beach neighbourhood of Oak Bay, British Columbia. There is a gabled dormer over the central entrance and an open front veranda. The historic place is characterized by its unusual exterior cladding of dropped siding and batten configuration. The property includes fruit trees and a restored garage dating from 1947.

Heritage Value

1512 Beach Drive was built in 1898 and is important for its assocation with the development, social, business and political history of Oak Bay, and in particular for its association with Arthur E. Haynes. Haynes was born in Victoria in 1872 and was an accountant for E. Crow-Baker when he built 1512 Beach Drive. By 1910 he was manager of B.A. Trust, and subsequently partnered in several Victoria financial firms before establishing A.E. Haynes Real Estate in 1926. He was a signator to the petition for municipal incorporation (July 2, 1906) and a member of the 1906 inaugural Oak Bay Council.

The house and property are historically important as a reflection of the pre-incorporation development of Oak Bay. The home was part of the 15-acre subdivision designed in 1898 by Francis Rattenbury in partnership with John Gerard Tiarks. The property is important because it was part of Oak Bay's first planned subdivision, located at Oak Bay Beach. It is also a rare example of urban planning by Francis Rattenbury.

The house is also valued as a fine example of the work of architect John G. Tiarks and is a rare and excellent example of pre-twentieth century Victorian Cottage style architecture extant in Oak Bay. It is one of 20 (out of 250 existing in 1906) pre-twentieth century homes surviving in Oak Bay and it remains as one of only two of the many summer cottages that were built along Oak Bay Beach at the turn of the twentieth century. (The other is Windsor Cottage at 1256 Beach Drive.)

1512 Beach Drive is also important for its association with the early social history of Oak Bay. Neighbours included the Maclure, Rattenbury, Phipps, J.D. Helmcken, Goward, Goodacre, Schwengers, Virtue, Peters and Tupper families. Many of the early homes were built as summer homes for well-off Victoria businessmen who were attracted to the rural atmosphere and recreational potential of early Oak Bay, and who were involved in the early development history of Oak Bay.

1512 Beach Drive is valued as a landmark property, notable for its picturesque aesthetic design elements of proportion, mass and scale. The restored 1947 garage is also noted for its cladding detail.

Source: District of Oak Bay

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of 1512 Beach Drive include:

- Landmark location on the waterfront drive, with orientation toward views of Oak Bay
- Steeply-pitched hipped roofline with front gabled and rear shed dormers
- Central gable with fishscale shingles
- Tall brick chimneys with steel braces
- Unusual wooden cladding configuration consisting of dropped siding topped with vertical battens
- Covered front veranda with original wood railings, posts and flooring
- Angled bay windows
- Original and authentic wood sash windows
- Triple-light front entry with wooden door
- Areas of original floor plan configuration and retention of original building footprint
- Original interior woodwork in entrance hall, including panelled walls, coffered ceiling, double arched bearing beam, curved stair railing and stair risers, baseboards and ceiling mouldings
- Original and authentic fir flooring
- Mature apple and plum trees in back garden
- Restored garage (1947) with authentic cladding pattern detail
- Original basement stairwell