Description of Historic Place

Mount View High School is a two-storey schoolhouse in the British Arts and Crafts style, which sits on a large piece of property surrounded by parking asphalt and lawn. It is located in the Carey area of Saanich.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Mount View High School is associated with the long-term development of its neighbourhood. Carey lies in the southwest portion of Saanich, and was first settled in the early 1850s by Hudson's Bay Company officials and farm settlers from Britain. The coming of the B.C. Electric Interurban Railway through the area in 1912 spawned wild land speculation and the development of the Marigold subdivision. Other subdivisions of farmland occurred as early as the 1890s, in the boom years of the late 1940s and the 1950s, and have continued up to the present day. Carey is now predominantly suburban.

Constructed as one of three high schools built in Saanich in the 1930s, Mount View High School is valued as a Depression-era Saanich high school, and for its association with the advancement of secondary education, which contributed to the development of the community. Despite the financial constraints of the Depression, the Saanich School Board decided to build this school to serve the local community, indicating the ongoing growth in the area. It consisted of ten classrooms including one commercial and one home economics area, an auditorium and office space on grounds that had tennis courts and several playing fields. The subsequent additions to the original 1930s portion of the school are significant because they reflect community development in the 1970s as new residential sub-divisions were built near the school. At the time, the province initiated a revised secondary curriculum that mandated specific layout of new facilities.

The school is also valued for its association with its original architects, Hubert Savage (1884-1955) and Eric C. Clarkson (1895-1977).

Source: Heritage Planning Files, District of Saanich

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of Mount View High School include its:
- symmetrical form and massing, and prominent scale
- elements of the British Arts and Crafts style as exemplified in its stucco cladding with half-timer details, gable on hipped roof, battered corners, and Tudor arches on the south and east entrance porches
- selected brick in cement chimney detail
- leaded glass panels at main entry
- cast iron work details in railings and above main entry
- flat-roofed dormers
- long banks of wooden-sash windows with nine small panes over one large pane