Description of Historic Place

1702 Fernwood Road is a one-and-one-half storey, wood frame house situated on the northwest corner of the intersection of Fernwood Road and Balmoral Road behind a low wall. It is located near the centre of the Fernwood neighbourhood, approximately one and one-half kilometers from the downtown core of Victoria.

Heritage Value

1702 Fernwood Road is valued as an excellent example of a Queen Anne house built during the Edwardian era, when the style was declining from its earlier popularity in Victoria and was showing signs of transition to other styles. The building is located on a corner lot with two façades, each viewable from a different street. Each of these façades presents the impression of an asymmetrical Queen Anne house; however, when viewed obliquely from the corner, the house is perceived as symmetrical, congruent with the contemporary trend to Classical Revival houses.

1702 Fernwood Road epitomizes the homes of a large number of residents of the Fernwood neighbourhood, many of whom were skilled workers or small business owners.

Sources: City of Victoria Planning & Development Department; Victoria Heritage Foundation

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of 1702 Fernwood Road include:
- its landmark corner location
- the overall symmetry when viewed on the diagonal through the corner
- the Queen Anne elements of the design, such as the cutaway bay windows with their coloured glass transoms, the beveled siding on the first-floor level separated by a pent roof from the shingles on the second-floor level, the wraparound porch, the pinnacles and cresting on the roof, and the cross gables and the corner tower with its eave brackets
- the Classical Revival elements, such as the Tuscan columns on the porch
- the artificial stone wall and piers and metal gate between the house and the street