Craigflower Farm was initiated in 1853 to provide food for the fort, the growing colony and the ships of the British Navy. In that year the foundation was laid for Craigflower Manor, intended for the manager of the farm, Kenneth MacKenzie, his wife and large family (4 boys and 4 girls). The house was completed in the Georgian Revival style after the arrival of the MacKenzies from Scotland and they moved in in 1856. This is not the oldest house in BC but it is the oldest house in this style and one of the very earliest to remain standing today. It was extensively restored and furnished with period items but suffered from a fire last year. Though the fire was small the damage from smoke and soot was extensive throughout the house and all of the artifacts have been moved into storage to allow the structure to be cleaned. Consequently it is not possible to view the interior. However, there are photos of many of the interior rooms before the fire on the BC Heritage website. There's lots of other interesting information there as well about life in early Victoria. Wikipedia also has a good article about Craigflower Farm and School. And, about 18 months ago I published a few photos and a bit of information on this blog. Craigflower School, a separate building, was not damaged by fire and I was able to go inside and look around at the restored classroom and other rooms. I'll post some photos of this tomorrow.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Craigflower Manor
Craigflower Farm was initiated in 1853 to provide food for the fort, the growing colony and the ships of the British Navy. In that year the foundation was laid for Craigflower Manor, intended for the manager of the farm, Kenneth MacKenzie, his wife and large family (4 boys and 4 girls). The house was completed in the Georgian Revival style after the arrival of the MacKenzies from Scotland and they moved in in 1856. This is not the oldest house in BC but it is the oldest house in this style and one of the very earliest to remain standing today. It was extensively restored and furnished with period items but suffered from a fire last year. Though the fire was small the damage from smoke and soot was extensive throughout the house and all of the artifacts have been moved into storage to allow the structure to be cleaned. Consequently it is not possible to view the interior. However, there are photos of many of the interior rooms before the fire on the BC Heritage website. There's lots of other interesting information there as well about life in early Victoria. Wikipedia also has a good article about Craigflower Farm and School. And, about 18 months ago I published a few photos and a bit of information on this blog. Craigflower School, a separate building, was not damaged by fire and I was able to go inside and look around at the restored classroom and other rooms. I'll post some photos of this tomorrow.
7 comments:
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Great old home with interesting history! This angle looks like a Hollywood backlot false-front. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderfully maintained house! I especially like the front door!
ReplyDeleteIt does look like just a facade. I like how the upper windows carry the same feature as the doorway, but the windows being so small makes me wonder if the rooms on the second floor are very small.
ReplyDeleteThanks JoJo - it also looks so rural when it is actually on quite a busy corner in a well-settled residential area.
ReplyDeleteLeif - I like the door too - especially the way the wrought iron is in a thistle pattern to recall MacKenzie's Scottish roots.
Clueless - apparently the small windows are especially typical of the Georgian style. During that era there was a tax on windows that depended on the size of the windows. The upper floors then were generally given smaller windows since they were likely to be occupied by children and/or servants.
- the window tax mentioned above was in the UK. So far as I know there was no window tax here but the small windows were repeated in this house since they had become part of the Georgian style. Similarly, the Georgian era was over when this house was built during Victoria's reign. It is thought it was built in this style because the MacKenzies wished it to emulate their manor homes in their native Scotland.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful home with such a great history.
ReplyDeleteMy post for Monday has three houses with a similar style, one of which is also old. I love the CDP coincidences.
ReplyDelete