Description of Historic Place

The James Northey House at 1060 West 15th Avenue is a 1½ storey (plus basement) Craftsman-style residence in the Fairview neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia situated on the south side of West 15th Avenue, about mid-block between Oak and Spruce Streets.

Heritage Value

Built in 1913, the James Northey Residence is significant for its historical connection to the development of the southern edge of the Fairview neighbourhood, sometimes called 'Lower Shaughnessy' and for its proximity in geography and status to the exclusive Shaughnessy Heights subdivision to its south.

This house is important as one of a group of several large residences on West 15th Avenue between Oak and Granville, built just before World War I for prosperous Vancouver families. An expensive house, costing $6200 to build and sitting on a double-than-average 66 foot lot, this large residence illustrates the prosperity of its first owner and the prestige of the area.

The James Northey Residence illustrates the success of a family-run enterprise in early Vancouver - small-scale development and contracting, which was pivotal in shaping the city's first neighbourhoods. Contractor Norman Young Cross designed and built it for realestate broker James Laird Northey, who owned Mill Cut Homes & Lumber Company (1920 - 1948) in Kitsilano. Both men designed, constructed and sold numerous buildings in Vancouver and North Vancouver from the 1910s through the 1930s - an illustration of the scale of building enterprises which created Vancouver's neighbourhoods in the early 20th century.

The Northey Residence is aesthetically significant as a very good example of the Craftsman Bungalow. The Craftsman style was the dominant architectural trend in Vancouver from 1910-1925, with its robust scale, asymmetrical massing, broad sidegabled roof and emphasis on structural quality and materials. It is important as one of the few surviving Craftsman homes in Fairview, where early houses have been replaced with apartment buildings and towers.

The difficulty of maintaining large, single-family homes during the economic Depression of the 1930s, combined with a severe housing shortage during World War II, resulted in 1940s emergency wartime legislation which mandated conversion of single-family dwellings. This Northey Residence's conversion into a 5-unit rooming house in 1941, and its continued use as a multi-unit rental building, illustrate the phenomenon of single-family dwellings adapting to changing times.

Character-Defining Elements

The Character Defining Elements of the James Northey House include its:

- Location on West 15th Avenue in the Fairview neighbourhood of Vancouver
- Continuous residential use
- Residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its one and one-half storey height plus basement, with main floor set a half floor above grade