Description of Historic Place

Stranton Lodge is a British Arts and Crafts house, situated on a rocky outcrop, fronted by a terraced woodland rock garden, behind which lies a forested public trail, Knockan Hill Park. It is located in a semi-rural area on West Burnside Road in the Carey area of Saanich.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of Stranton Lodge is associated with the development of its neighbourhood context. 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.

Stranton Lodge is also valued for its association with the original owners Thomas and Maude Hall. The setting of the house is significant, because the Halls sold their home and land to Saanich in 1973 in order to preserve the trees on their property within the boundaries of Knockan Hill Park.

Furthermore, the heritage value of this property lies in the fact that it is a good example of a British Arts and Crafts house set in an English rock garden, within the larger scope of a fine natural woodland. The house was designed by architect Hubert Savage (1884-1955), a friend of the Halls, and built by Donald McKinnon Lindsay. Local nurseryman and designer Arthur Lahmer constructed at least thirteen garden pools and a bog garden in 1939. There were also a series of steps and terraces planted with herbs, shrubs, classic English perennials and native plants.

This property is a good example of community involvement, as local citizens from the Friends of Knockan Hill have teamed with the Saanich Heritage Foundation to oversee not only the house and garden restoration, but also its ongoing care.

Source: Heritage Planning Files, District of Saanich

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of Stranton Lodge include its:
- form, scale and massing
- English Arts and Crafts architectural elements such as the diamond-paned leaded light wooden-sash windows
- elevated setting on a natural rock outcrop
- fieldstone foundation
- stuccoed walls
- rustic boarding in the gables
- green wooden shutters on the front windows
- elements of the English Rock Garden such as the front garden sculpted out of the rocks, with pools and steps descending the steep slope; the ponds and terraced garden; and the sundial and slate bench in the garden
- collection of original plant species within the garden, which include Black Walnut, Chinese Kolkwitzia, Japanese Aucuba, Oriental Fir, Portugese Laurel and Linden