|
 Spinks-Ellison House - Vernon, BC Posted by:  ScroogieII
N 50° 16.078 W 119° 15.605
11U E 338935 N 5570869
Built for a judge in 1894, the Spinks-Ellison House was also home to another prominent Okanagan citizen, Price Ellison.
Waymark Code: WM12Y9P
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 08/05/2020
Views: 1
Standing on a quiet cul de sac, this house resides in one of the more prominent neighbourhoods of Vernon's east side, as befits the home of a court judge. Though in part because of its having been build for a well known judge, it is its relationship with one Price Ellison that renders the house's claim to fame. Ellison lived in the house from 1907 until shortly before his death on December 12, 1932.
Price Ellison was an ambitious Englishmen, born October 6, 1852, in Dunham-Massey, England. Trained as a blacksmith, in 1873 he emigrated to the United States, to try his luck in the California Gold Rush. From there he followed the stories of gold to The Caribou in British Columbia. Still later he trekked to Cherry Creek in the North Okanagan, east of Vernon. Having worse than poor luck there, he went west to Vernon, taking a job at the Coldstream Ranch. After working there for two years he had saved enough money to buy a half section of land in Priest's Valley for one dollar per acre.
Ellison turned out to be an excellent farmer; in 1893 his Barley won first place at the Chicago World's Fair. In time he managed to build a substantial empire of many thousands of acres in the Okanagan Valley. His greatest contribution to the valley, however, was the introduction of irrigation to a large area of the valley. This came about during his service on the British Columbia Legislature, eventually becoming Finance and Agriculture Minister.
Ellison, however, was not a completely above-board, scrupulously honest, businessman, his dealings often going to court, his term in government ending less than honourably. The reader is encouraged to browse This Biography to learn further detail of the life of Price Ellison.
SPINKS/ELLISON HOUSE
Description of Historic Place
The Spinks-Ellison house is a two-storey English Arts and Crafts country house located on 36th Avenue above Pleasant Valley Road on the East Hill of Vernon.
Heritage Value
The Spinks/Ellison house is significant as the home of two prominent Vernon families who played significant roles in the judicial, political, and social evolution of Vernon. W. W. Spinks was born in Liverpool in 1851. After graduating from law school, he immigrated to Canada after a chance meeting with Sir Charles Tupper, the Canadian High Commissioner in London. He practiced law for four years in Kamloops before being appointed Judge of Court for the County of Yale. In 1892 a Court House was built in Vernon and Spinks moved from Kamloops to Vernon. In 1893, Spinks commissioned the Vancouver firm of Fripp and Wills to design a large country house on Pleasant Valley Road in the fashionable Prospect Subdivision on East Hill. T. E. Crowell, in partnership with W. F. Cameron, was the successful contractor. The house was completed in 1894. Active in agriculture as well as law, Spinks owned several ranches and was instrumental in bringing alfalfa to the Okanagan Valley.
In 1907, Price Ellison bought the house. Ellison was a successful rancher who held extensive holdings throughout the North and Central Okanagan. He was elected to the Provincial Legislature in 1898, serving as Commissioner of Lands in 1909, Minister of Finance in 1910, and Minister of Agriculture in 1913. The Ellison family opened their home to the community for weddings, fundraising events, and meetings of community groups like the Primrose Club and Girl Guides. They entertained soldiers in both World Wars. At Christmas time, a large tree was decorated in the two-storey entrance hall. The gathering room was traditionally decorated with a large fir tree.
The house is also valued for its arts and crafts architecture and lavish interior decoration and for its association with the architect Robert McKay Fripp (1858-1917). Fripp was born in Clifton, a suburb of Bristol, England. While articling as an architect in Berkshire, Fripp was influenced by the Arts and Crafts theories of Richard Normal Shaw and William Morris. In British Columbia Fripp was an active supporter of the movement, leading him to found the Arts and Crafts Society in Vancouver. He travelled widely and worked in New Zealand and Los Angeles, as well as British Columbia. The massing of the house was in the asymmetrical form of the Queen Anne Revival style, cross-gabled with an offset front gable thrust forward, and a central steeply-pitched hipped roof behind. (A fire in 1932, led to a reduction in the height and the replacement of the complex roof structure with a simple side-gabled roof.) The variety of surface materials, including drop siding and shingles, is in the Arts and Crafts aesthetic.
The house is also notable for its finely wrought interior features, including 12 foot ceilings, extensive use of fir, cedar and maple wood paneling, turned wood decoration, leaded windows with stained glass, a curved wooden staircase and fireplaces with metal surrounds and tiles decorated in arts and crafts motifs.
From the City of Vernon Heritage Register, Page 51
Official Heritage Registry: [Web Link]
Address:
2159 – 36th Avenue
Vernon, BC
V1T 7X9
Heritage Registry Page Number: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
To log a visit to a Waymark in this category at least one photo of the property, taken by the visitor, must be included with the visit, as well any comments they have concerning either their visit or the site itself. Suggested inclusions are: what you like about the site, its history, any deviations from the description in the heritage listing noted by the visitor, and the overall state of repair of the site.
|