| This splendid old house was built in 1893 for Victor Jacobson, a successful local sailor who made many voyages to the Bering Sea in search of seal pelts. While he didn't build the house himself he carved all the ornate decorations that adorn it. The house is located in Esquimalt near Westbay Marina. A plaque in the adjacent Jacobson Park identifies the architectural style as "Steamboat Gothic" or "Barbary Coast." Wikipedia suggests that this style is more properly termed "Carpenter Gothic." "Steamboat Gothic" is generally reserved for houses built near the Ohio or Mississippi Rivers and styled to look like the ornately decorated steamboats that used to ply those rivers. |  |
