Originally built in 1899 as a private residence, this building now houses a cozy little restaurant which serves delicious helpings of seriously healthful food, pretty much all of which they grow themselves on a commune about 20 miles away.
The building, in a wonderful state of preservation, is interesting for its architectural styling and its adaptation to its hillside location.
It sits at number 19 on the City of Nelson's 2011
Heritage Register
Description
The building housing the Preserved Seed restaurant (Now known as: The Yellow Deli) is a two and-a-half story gable-roofed house above Vernon Street just east of the foot of Falls Street, in the downtown area of Nelson, B.C.
Value
Constructed in 1899, the house at 202 Vernon Street is important both for its wealth of original exterior detailing and its adaptations due to its placement on a bluff. Its adaptive re-use as commercial space
is an important indicator of the migration of residential uses away from the downtown core as Nelson matured.
The house is a good example of typical late-19th century modest house design. The gable roof, simple massing and flat planes make this building less ornate than High Victorian design, but the materials
and details lack the severe restraint of the simply detailed Edwardian ‘boxes’ of the following decade. The house is valuable for its idiosyncrasies, such as the arched design and window placement of the shingle gable-ends.
As a restaurant, the building is a valuable example of the adaptive re-use of small residential buildings near the commercial core of Nelson to absorb increased need for commercial space. Aesthetically, the restaurant has a quality of cosiness highly valued by residents and visitors.
Character Defining Elements
Site
¶ Spanning bluff between Vernon and Baker Streets
¶ Wooded slope
¶ More or less level access from rear
Building
¶ Simple gabled 1 1/2 storey (from uphill side) residential building
¶ Structural remains of front verandah (facing the lake): roof and perhaps some posts and floor structure
¶ Original exterior detailing: wood drop siding, wood trim and moulding
¶ Wood windows: sash, frames, and trim; head trim with wood drip moulding capping trim.
¶ Original wall shingling at dormers and at eave edge in gable ends (with semicircular cutout for set back exterior wall with drop siding)