There is rarely any surface decoration other than dentils. Most of the homes have narrow clapboard siding, which can now often be seen covered in stucco.
From Online Permit databases, City of Vancouver Report 2018: "This Early Cottage home was built in 1911. The owner and architect is listed as A. Blonds, while the builder was J. Kendall. It is a single-storey dwelling house valued at $1100 at the time of construction. Demolished May 2016."
From Canada's Historic Places: "The Boeur Cottage and House at 3532 West 5th Avenue are of heritage value principally because of their association with early and long-term owners. The property was originally a Crown grant to Henrietta Isabel Boeur dating back to 1907. She and her husband, Antoine J. Boeur, longshoreman and stevedore, had the Cottage built in 1912 by Victor Fontaine, carpenter. It is one of the earliest houses built south of West 4th Avenue and west of Macdonald Street, marking the beginning of expansion of Kitsilano west as far as Alma Street."
From Heritage Vancouver Building Permits Database, VPL British Columbia City Directories 1860-1955: "The house at 3016 St. Catherines St. was first listed in 1910 and had multiple owners over the years. Its initial occupant was John Anderson, a chief clerk. In 1915 the house was owned by William G Warn who worked at the British Columbia Electric (BCE). The BCE was a historic railway which ran from 1890 to 1958 and operated in southwestern British Columbia and was granted a patent for the invention of a signalling device for motor vehicles. The one storey Pioneer-style house features drop siding cladding, a side-gabled roof, and a dormer window"
From VHF Files: "3004 St. Catherines Street was built in 1910 by A. Matheson in Mount Pleasant as one of four CPR employee houses."
From Online Permit databases, City of Vancouver Report 2018: "This Early Cottage home was built in 1911. The owner and architect is listed as A. Blonds, while the builder was J. Kendall. It is a single-storey dwelling house valued at $1100 at the time of construction. Demolished May 2016."
From Canada's Historic Places: "The Boeur Cottage and House at 3532 West 5th Avenue are of heritage value principally because of their association with early and long-term owners. The property was originally a Crown grant to Henrietta Isabel Boeur dating back to 1907. She and her husband, Antoine J. Boeur, longshoreman and stevedore, had the Cottage built in 1912 by Victor Fontaine, carpenter. It is one of the earliest houses built south of West 4th Avenue and west of Macdonald Street, marking the beginning of expansion of Kitsilano west as far as Alma Street."
From Heritage Vancouver Building Permits Database, VPL British Columbia City Directories 1860-1955: "The house at 3016 St. Catherines St. was first listed in 1910 and had multiple owners over the years. Its initial occupant was John Anderson, a chief clerk. In 1915 the house was owned by William G Warn who worked at the British Columbia Electric (BCE). The BCE was a historic railway which ran from 1890 to 1958 and operated in southwestern British Columbia and was granted a patent for the invention of a signalling device for motor vehicles. The one storey Pioneer-style house features drop siding cladding, a side-gabled roof, and a dormer window"
From VHF Files: "3004 St. Catherines Street was built in 1910 by A. Matheson in Mount Pleasant as one of four CPR employee houses."
Origins
Old Vancouver had many cabins and shacks of two to four rooms. They often had side gables and simple attached porches, nearly all of which have disappeared from the modern city. The Early Cottage is a slightly more substantial version of these small, practical homes and is still common in older districts.
Form
With its hipped roof extending over a full-width front porch and single dormers on the front and back, it is the most modest example of the Neoclassical Revival of the late nineteenth century. Thus it can claim distant kinship with Shaughnessy mansions such as Hycroft and The Hollies.
Details
Most early cottages are one storey with a bell-cast flare to the eaves and a relatively low roof pitch, leaving attic space so cramped as to be useless. Some have steeper-pitched roofs that shelter narrow upstairs rooms lit dimly by the dormers. The front edge of the roof is typically supported by four square posts, although sometimes even small houses have grouped turned columns. Vancouver’s examples almost invariably have a bay window on one side of the front façade. The front door is usually minimally offset from the centre. A parlour, kitchen and eating area occupy the bay-window side of the main hallway, while bedrooms and a bathroom occupy the other. Some Early Cottages have a cutaway front porch occupying half the façade’s width, providing more enclosed living space behind the bay window.