Description of Historic Place

The Holland Residence is a one-and-one-half storey, cross-gabled Craftsman style stone bungalow, and associated garden, located in the Quadra area of Saanich.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Holland Residence is associated with its development within its neighbourhood context. Quadra, located directly north of the Victoria-Saanich border, is a large urban neighbourhood created from subdivisions of its early farms. Much of the south part of Quadra was originally W.F. Tolmie's Cloverdale Farm, just one of the large farms in the area cut from the forest by the 1850s. Tolmie was a prominent local surgeon, Hudson's Bay Company officer, politician and major early landowner in this area of Saanich. The Canadian Northern Pacific Railway ran a service from Victoria to Sidney through the area from 1915 to 1935; their spur line ran until 1990 and is now used as a regional trail.

The Holland Residence is valued for its association with its original owners and architects Francis Cuyler Holland and Sylvia Grace (Moberly) Holland. Sylvia Holland (1900-1974) is renowned for becoming the first woman registered with the Architectural Institute of B.C. in 1933. The Holland Residence is an excellent example of the architectural principles of the Arts and Crafts movement. Built in 1925 by local stonemason Arthur Stewart, this house epitomizes the Arts and Crafts ideal of the implementation of excellent craftsmanship and local building materials in well proportioned and finely detailed architectural design.

As the home of noted pharmacist William Weir 'Mac' McGill and child welfare advocate Gertrude Elizabeth McGill, this residence is synonymous with the beginnings of early childhood education in Victoria. As the first co-operative preschool in Victoria, established by Gertrude McGill in 1944, the use of this place as the locally renowned 'Children's Garden Library' set the foundation for the Vancouver Island Cooperative Preschool Association, which continues to operate early childhood education centres today. Gertrude also organized Victoria's first Save the Children fund drive on Halloween in 1952. She was a member of the Greater Victoria School Board for eleven years, and served three years as its first female chairperson.

Source: Heritage Planning Files, District of Saanich

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Holland Residence include its:
- form, scale and massing
- situation of the house in a garden context
- rough-cut stone masonry cladding of the house
- Arts and Crafts elements of the house, such as its cross-gabled design, rough-cast stucco, six-over-one wood sash windows in registers of three and five units, half-timbered gables, and prominent front porch
- interior elements from the date of original construction