Dodd House

The heritage value of the Dodd House lies in its association with Captain Charles Dodd. Dodd came to the Pacific coast in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1835, and, by 1845, was captain of the Company's S.S. Beaver, the first steamship to operate in the waters around Vancouver Island. Dodd is commemorated in B.C. at Dodd Narrows, between Vancouver Island and Mudge Island.

The Dodd House is of historical value both as an illustration of a pioneer country house and as an indication of the manufacturing, trading, and economic conditions at the time of its construction (1859-60). The Dodd family, Charles, his wife Grace, and their six children, built this house on an 80 hectare tract of land in Gordon Head. It is a simple cottage with a sitting room, two bedrooms and a lean-to kitchen. The interior with its 3.7 metre high ceilings is lined in redwood tongue-and-groove with decorative mouldings of a quality that could not be obtained in southern Vancouver Island at the time of the house's construction. The redwood was imported from California, an indication of the dominant trading pattern of the Island prior to the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway on the coast in the 1880s as well as Dodd's ability to acquire high quality materials using his professional relationships. It is also valued as the earliest known house on Vancouver Island to have been constructed using balloon framing techniques, rather than the Hudson Bay Company's method of adzed log wall construction.

The heritage significance of Dodd House is also rooted in its association with the growth and development of its neighbourhood context. Gordon Head is bordered on the north and east by Haro Strait and on the west by Blenkinsop Valley and Mount Douglas. First settled by farmers, starting with James Todd in 1852, Gordon Head became famous for its strawberries and then its daffodils. In 1921, city water service was brought to Gordon Head, leading to a proliferation of greenhouses and vegetable farming. Since the 1950s, the area has gradually been developed with single family housing. The Dodd House is a tangible link with the area's pioneer settlement.