Tom Bones House - Kamloops, BC - British Columbia Heritage Markers on Waymarking.com

The Tom Bones House

Description of Historic Place
The Tom Bones House is a one-storey, wood-frame Arts and Crafts cottage with an inset entry porch and cedar shingle siding. It is situated on the north side of Royal Avenue, within the North Shore district of Kamloops, with an alley access to the east side.

Heritage Value
Built circa 1930, the Tom Bones House is valued for its association with the settlement of the North Shore of Kamloops. This was primarily a rural farming area with orchards and fields until 1909, when B.C. Fruitlands - a British-based company - was incorporated, and obtained over 9,000 acres on the North Shore. By 1920, the company had increased its holdings to over 22,000 acres, and installed an extensive irrigation system that supplied water to all of North Kamloops. After the irrigation system was installed, the company promoted programs to attract settlers to the area. Over time, the patchwork of farms developed into a community and in 1946, the village of North Kamloops was incorporated.

The Tom Bones House has heritage significance for its association with first owner, Thomas Bones (1875-1964), a local carpenter and his wife, Louisa Jane (née Fenner, 1874-1929), who both hailed from England. Tom Bones worked at the sanitarium in nearby Tranquille, and built this Arts and Crafts style cottage himself. His carpentry skills are evident on both the exterior and interior; the round stones for the fireplace were apparently collected from Tranquille.

Additionally, the Tom Bones House is valued as an example of an Arts and Crafts Period Revival cottage and is representative of traditional domestic ideals. Between the two World Wars, houses were expected to display some sort of historical reference in order to demonstrate the owner’s good taste. An Arts and Crafts influence is demonstrated in the diagonally-cut window trim and built-in flower boxes.

Character-Defining Elements
Key characteristics that define the heritage character of the Tom Bones House include its:
- location on Royal Avenue in the North Shore district of Kamloops
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its one-storey height with side-gabled roof, front-gabled projection, inset entry porch and later matching addition to the west side
- wood-frame construction and concrete foundation with stucco finish - Arts and Crafts influence as expressed by cedar shingle siding, diagonally-cut window trim, built-in flower boxes and multi-paned glazed front door
- two internal chimneys with stucco finish and corbelled tops - windows, such as double-hung, 1-over-1 wooden sash windows in single and double assembly
- associated landscape features such as mature perimeter plantings
From the Kamloops Heritage Register