Description of Historic Place

The Hoare House is a prominent two and one-half storey wood-frame British Arts and Crafts style house, located on a large corner lot at East 5th and St. David's Streets in a residential context. Now divided into five apartments, the front of the house faces the alley between 4th and 5th Streets.

Heritage Value

Built in 1908, the Hoare Residence is valued as a good example of the British Arts and Crafts style, prevalent in British Columbia during the Edwardian era. The use of a British idiom was common among the predominantly English settlers, nostalgic for the familiarity of Britain, who demonstrated their loyalty to the Mother Country and their patriotism through the commissioning of homes designed by British-trained architects. The Arts and Crafts movement looked both forward - to a new social order and rational expression of construction, and back - to values rooted in British soil. Characteristic British Arts and Crafts features include the half-timbered walls, leaded diamond-paned windows, complex roofline and rich contrast of surface textures. The home's informal and picturesque British character is developed further with the use of broken wall planes through the addition of gable projections, jettied gables and bay windows. This expansive house was built for John H. Hoare, a purchasing agent for the Canadian Northern Railway Company, and Mary Elizabeth Hoare (1853-1922).

Source: Heritage Planning Files, City of North Vancouver

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Hoare Residence include its:
- irregular, corner location at East 5th and St. Davids Streets
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its two and one-half storey plus above-ground basement height and irregular, rectangular plan
- steeply pitched side-gabled roof with steeply pitched gabled projections and gabled wall dormer
- full-height granite foundation and wood-frame construction
- British Arts and Crafts influence as evident in: half-timbering and stucco in the upper storey; narrow lapped wooden siding at the ground level; cedar shingle detail between front door canopy and the door; and shallow jetties in the gable peaks
- additional exterior elements such as: large open wraparound verandah with square columns and balusters; and original wooden doors with hardware, including side door with elongated strap hinges
- irregular, asymmetrical fenestration including multiple assembly double-hung wooden-sash windows with diamond upper panes; and square sided bay windows
- associated landscape features such as mature plantings and a stone retaining wall