Description of Historic Place

151 Sunny Lane is a one-and-one-half storey stucco-clad house with an eclectic mix of Period Revival features, located on a sloping wooded property in Oak Bay, British Columbia. Hidden from view at the end of a winding drive, the house is set in a 0.4 hectare garden of native plants. A series of stone steps leads from the garden up to a look-out over Walbran Park. The formal recognition includes the house and its surrounding landscape.

Heritage Value

This place, including the house and land, is valued for its strong cultural and spiritual association with the Coast Salish Lekwungen (Songhees First Nation) people who, before the arrival of the Europeans, collected clams and mussels on the nearby beaches and harvested edible camas bulbs on the hillside.

This site is also valued for its association with Alexander McCrimmon, who designed and built the house in 1921. McCrimmon was a well-known designer and builder in Greater Victoria, where there are some 30 buildings to his credit. Among his projects was the landmark Alkazar Apartments on Fairfield Road. The house has an attractive mix of revival styles; some of its defining features are its rough-cast stucco cladding, complex roof shape and stuccoed chimneys.

The property is further valued for its association with recent owners who believed that they should return this land to the native people who have been displaced from their traditional territory and resources for over one hundred and fifty years. The property has been willed to the Xaxe Tenew Sacred Land Society, which will use it as a cultural and educational centre for both native and non-native visitors to gather native plants and learn traditional skills. This Society is the first of its kind in British Columbia.

Source: District of Oak Bay

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of 151 Sunny Lane include its:

Site:
- steeply-sloping wooded property with views across McNeill Bay and Juan de Fuca Strait
- landscape features including stone steps to look-out, native plants, Welcome Panel carving, First Nations carved gate
- location ofthe house at the back of the lot, unseen from the road, behind a wooden gate and adjacent to Walbran Park

House:
- residential form, scale, and massing
- complex roof of pyramidal and hipped forms
- wood-frame construction with rough-cast stucco cladding
- style details such as battered piers, eave brackets, modillions
- exterior architectural details such as two stuccoed chimneys
- irregular fenestration; double-hung windows, some with flanking fixed panes; arched window
- original interior features including fireplace mantelpieces, woodwork, floors, built-in bookcases, kitchen cabinets, staircase and balustrade