Description of Historic Place

The Tribune Bay Lodge is a one-storey, wood frame house in two parts: the early homestead with a gable roof and front overhang, and the Lodge addition, a gable-roofed structure with ribbon windows and shed dormer. The Lodge is surrounded by open lawns, foundation plantings, associated outbuildings, an orchard and wetland. It is located on Tribune Bay on the eastern side of Hornby Island, in Georgia Strait near Buckley Bay on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Heritage Value

The Tribune Bay Lodge, its context and outbuildings--a barn, cabins and washhouse--and its landscape features are valued for their historical, social/cultural, recreational, aesthetic and educational importance.

The Tribune Bay Lodge property is significant historically as one of the two first post-contact pre-emptions and farms on Hornby Island. The early part of the Lodge building and the remains of the original landscape associated with the farm are still visible today.

One of several resorts established on Hornby Island, the Lodge is a rare surviving example of a waterfront resort once common on the Gulf Islands. Local residents saw this form of summer tourism as an important way to develop the local economy. The distance from Victoria and Vancouver made the property attractive as a recreational resort; the rural nature of the island provided the ambiance necessary to promote the resort as a quiet relaxing place; the natural seaside setting provided natural amenities of warm shallow waters for swimming and fishing, a sandy beach, and abundant birdlife and other wildlife for viewing.

The coastline and lands south of Tribune Bay were eventually subdivided into hundreds of individual parcels; many were used as summer cottages and holiday homes. Though privately owned, the Lodge became an anomaly--a place for quiet and communal holidaying amongst friends. Many families returned annually. The natural seaside setting helped refresh tired city workers, and gave city children a chance to play freely outdoors.

Through various owners, the resort provided a healthy, low-budget family vacation destination on a rural island. In the regional context, this scenario is very similar to the way in which holiday resort cabins were developed at Roesland on Pender Island, and that the Union Steamship cottages were rented on Bowen Island. The simple architectural style of both the original homestead and the Lodge addition reflect this use, as do the outbuildings, which include a barn, cabins and washhouse. The remaining orchard and the garden surrounded by a picket fence recall the site's early homestead use. Natural history and scientific values are found in the adjacent wetland, a demonstration natural sewage treatment project.

The Lodge property (14 acres within the park) has recreational and educational value through its use by the Tribune Bay Outdoor Education Society as an outdoor educational centre since 1983. It is an important part of the experiential and environmental school curriculum and teacher professional development program for School Districts 69 (Qualicum) and 71 (Comox Valley).

Source: Ministry of Environment, BC Parks

Character-Defining Elements

Key character-defining elements of Tribune Bay Lodge include:

Site:
-setting above the beach at Tribune Bay
-outbuildings: barn, cabins and washhouse
-orchard
-picket fence and garden
-wetland

Building:
-low residential form, horizontal massing
-two distinct parts of the building
-gable roof with shed extension and porch on the circa 1875 portion of the building
-gable roof with shed dormer on the 1928 addition
-wood-framed windows
-horizontal wood cladding