Description of Historic Place

1390 Thurlow Street is a simple two-storey gabled Craftsman Style house at the northeast corner of Thurlow and Pacific Streets in Vancouver’s West End, next to a similarly detailed house built in the same year.

Heritage Value

Built in 1911, the house at 1390 Thurlow Street is significant primarily for its cultural and aesthetic values, and particularly important as a rare surviving example of original single-family residential development of Vancouver’s West End. The property on which the house stands is of cultural significance for its typical early speculative ownership pattern by owners of British ancestry in advance of the house construction, as part of the formation of a middle class British enclave in Vancouver.

The break-up of the single-family house into apartments in the 1940s is an important record of the conscious decision by the civic government to allow for the subdivision of houses in the West End. As a multiple dwelling, the house records the need for a significant increase in affordable apartments in the city as a result of the population shifts during the Second World War, and the tight financial constraints faced by the population at the time.

The house is a good example of the Craftsman bungalow design, a style prevalent at the time, and well-suited to the geography and climate of the West Coast, featuring a relatively high site coverage. In keeping with that style, which welcomes a balanced asymmetry, the layout and siting of the house are a sympathetic response to side slope conditions - the entry porch on the uphill side of the property - and its corner siting, with its generous window design on both the south and west facades, and very prominent use of clinker brick in foundations and chimneys.

The house is important for the significant amount of remaining original exterior detailing, particularly its shingle cladding and extensive use of clinker brick for chimneys.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements of the house at 1390 Thurlow Street include:

- Original siting near the Thurlow and Pacific property lines
- Original main cross-gable roof with ancillary gable and shed roof forms
- Particular asymmetrical form of front second floor gable
- Original close relationship of main floor to grade on uphill side
- Prominent clinker brick foundation work
- Connection of front porch to side- sloping landscape
- Front porch form and details
- Door and window locations, form and materials
- Original shingle siding and trim
- Sign of multiple conversion: the fire escape at the rear
- Craftsman Style detailing including clinker-brick chimneys and exposed rafter details