139 Cook Street

139 Cook Street is a five-room Craftsman bungalow located across from Beacon Hill Park in Victoria's Fairfield neighbourhood.

139 Cook Street, built in 1911, is valued for its architecture, its builder and original owner, its unusual materials of construction, and how its construction exemplifies the pre-World War I building boom in Victoria.

139 Cook Street has value as an excellent example of a Craftsman bungalow. The house illustrates the professional interest of the first owner and builder, John Avery, a contractor who pioneered the use of concrete block in home construction. Together with its immediate neighbour to the south, 97 Cook Street, it is one of the few early examples of concrete block construction surviving in Victoria. Craftsman bungalows expressed pride in craftsmanship, as shown, inside and out, in the attention to detail in this example. Of special note is the pergola on the south verandah, a feature that rarely survives Victoria's wet climate.

The house is also representative of the boom years during which the bulk of the Fairfield neighbourhood was developed. After the building of the Government Street causeway and the draining of the swamp land to the east, Victoria coincidentally entered its most prolific building phase, ending just before the outset of World War I, when the world lumber market crashed.

Source: City of Victoria Planning Department

The heritage character of 139 Cook Street is defined by the following elements:

- characteristics of the Craftsman-style bungalow, including half-timbered gables with pebble-dashed stucco, shallow cross-gabled bays on either side, slate roof, overhanging eaves, stone piers with matching wall masonry, upper sleeping porch with balustrade, tall chimneys from concrete block, and wraparound verandah with pergola on the southern exposure, square chamfered posts, and balustrade

- concrete wall along the west, south, and north property lines, made from the same blocks as the house

- form and pattern of fenestration

- corner location