Description of Historic Place

The Schetky Residence is a one-storey, late Victorian building located in one of Nanaimo's oldest neighbourhoods just north of the downtown core. The historic place includes the building and grounds.

Heritage Value

Built around 1898, the Schetky Residence is an excellent example of a transitional Late Victorian/Edwardian style bungalow. The square-plan house has a central front entry with square chamfered columns, and a bellcast pyramidal roof. The long, low proportions mark the change in style at the end of the Victorian era, when tall, asymmetrical houses with highly decorated surfaces and complex rooflines went out of fashion. The ornamentation is limited to scroll-cut eave brackets, banded and corbelled chimneys, and a rear window flashed with coloured glass.

The Schetky Residence, the oldest known building in this neighbourhood, is a rare surviving example of the type of prestigious housing that predominated in Newcastle Townsite from its first development just after 1900 until the 1940s. Separated from the rest of the Nanaimo by the Millstone River, Newcastle Townsite quickly became an exclusive residential suburb for the city's commercial and professional elite. Today, the neighbourhood is a mix of commercial buildings, apartment buildings and single-family houses, but surviving early residences such as this building are important evidence of the original character of the area.

The Schetky Residence's grounds represent the type of landscaping that was favoured for Nanaimo's upscale neighbourhoods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The mature Chilean Pine (Monkey Puzzle Tree) on the site is listed on the City's register of heritage trees. These trees were a popular fad before World War I and were often brought in by ships' crews as souvenirs when they stopped to refuel in South America. Often given as gifts, they were planted singly or in pairs in front yards. Other landscape features include mature holly trees, lilac bushes, rose bushes along the walk, and a Japanese Plum. The grounds have a historical and physical relationship to the building and, as such, are an important component of the site's value.

The Schetky Residence's location at a busy intersection and the massive Chilean Pine in the front yard make it a neighbourhood landmark.

Source: City of Nanaimo, Development Services Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Schetky Residence include:
- all of the elements of the transitional style as expressed in the symmetrical massing, simple form,
shingle cladding, board and batten foundation skirting, double-hung wooden sash windows, bellcast pyramidal roof, partly inset central entry porch, square chamfered columns, grid balustrade, scroll cut eave brackets, flashed glass panel at rear with coloured glass and banded and corbelled chimney.
- the Chilean Pine tree and other landscape features.
- the building's location at a busy intersection in one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods.