FIRST CROWELL HOUSE
Description of Historic Place
The first Crowell House is a two storey Queen Anne Revival house located on the east side of
27th Street.
Heritage Value
The first Crowell House, built in 1893, is notable as a rare, intact, and finally detailed example of High Victorian architecture in the spindle work Queen Anne Revival style. The form of the building is a hipped roof, wood frame building with a dominant off-centre front facing gable.
The exterior is finished with drop siding. The house features a variety of original Queen Anne
Revival detail, including turned porch rails, spindle work, decorative bargeboards, and an
Eastlake sunburst design in the front gable. This version of Queen Anne Revival was popularized in the United States in the 1880s. The basic form was asymmetrical with a dominant front gable and a hipped roof behind. A variety of surface materials was preferred, to mimic medieval precedents. On wooden buildings, this would include a mixture of siding and shingles, often in decorative patterns. This house has fish scale shingles in the front eaves, to provide a contrast to the drop siding. Spindle work details such as beading, lace-like brackets, and turned porch rails are also evident, echoing the furniture designs of Charles Eastlake.
The house is valued for its association with T. E. Crowell, one of Vernon’s earliest and most
prolific builders. He formed a partnership with W. F. Cameron, a contractor and builder in 1891, his first important commission being the Kalamalka Hotel, followed by the Park School in 1893. He also was the contractor for the Jacques store in 1894, the Smith house in 1907, the new CPR Station in 1911, the first City Hall, as well as undertook projects elsewhere in the Okanagan, including the Enderby and Armstrong Schools, and the Royal Anne Hotel in Kelowna.
This modest home, built for his own occupancy, represents the beginning of his career and
provides a contrast to his substantial brick home built further up the East Hill in 1910. Crowell played an active part in civic life, serving as an alderman, as a member of the Board of Trade and the Fire Brigade, of which he was chief from 1898-1912.
The house is further valued for its association with the evolution of building on 27th Street.
In 1910, the house was moved from its original site to make way for the new Court House.
Fifteen years later it was bought by the Catholic Church to serve as a rectory, for the nearby
St. James Catholic Church, a use which continued until 1952. The house, rehabilitated by
Nancy and Gordon Hannah (who lived in the third floor attic space) into a science store in the
early 1990s, is now the law office of Woolley and Company.
From the City of Vernon Heritage Register, Page 32