613 Avalon Road

613 Avalon Road is a single-storey wood-frame Queen Anne cottage built in 1890. The cottage plays a key role in the Avalon Heritage Conservation Area, anchored by Avalon Street itself, most of which was built at the end of the nineteenth century. This short quiet street connects historic Beacon Hill Park with the community of James Bay, a peninsula on the southern edge of downtown Victoria.

613 Avalon Road is important as a charming, intact, Queen Anne-style cottage, clearly visible from the intersection of Avalon with busy Government Street. The addition in 1909 of two rooms speaks to the owners' growing family and growing prosperity.

By building this house in 1890 for his own family shortly after his arrival in the city, William Lang, a building contractor from Ontario, demonstrates the Victoria building boom. Using a host of design and carpentry skills, he exuberantly celebrates the most colourful and ornate possibilities of the Queen Anne style. Although a modest bungalow, its complex footprint and dynamic rooflines, unusual angles, surprising shapes and colours dramatically advertise Lang's prowess.

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

The character-defining elements of 613 Avalon Road include:

- widow's walk on the roof

- coloured glass lights surrounding windows

- five types of brackets

- stepped and corbelled chimneys

- tiny front-facing dormer window with cutout panel in gable

- front verandah with Eastlake-style balustrade, arched brackets, and turned supports

- Moorish 22-light window in front-facing gable

- bracketed octagonal bay with cutaway corners

- drop-siding, and fish-scale and dogtooth shingles

- transom lights over door & windows

- placement within the heritage streetscape of Avalon Heritage Conservation District