Jack Allison House

Jack Allison House is a one-and-a-half storey wood frame house located on the southeast corner of McNaughton Avenue and Reid Street in North Quesnel, BC. The historic place includes the building and the parcel of land it occupies.

Jack Allison House is valued for its historic association with the people who shaped the development of Quesnel. The house was built by well-known contractor Harry Joyce in 1936 and is located in North Quesnel, which is an older residential neighbourhood in the city. Over the years, renovations have occurred, however the house supports the other buildings on the street that have experienced change.

The house is named for Jack Allison. Jack was the son of pioneers, Charles and Frances Allison, who operated a drug store in the Hudson's Bay Company Building on Carson Avenue for many years. Jack married Marguerite Walker in 1936 and they moved into this house. Marguerite was a nurse who came to Quesnel during a recruitment drive to staff the hospital. From 1944 to 1976, Jack was the postmaster of Quesnel and later he was elected to City Council. Jack was an active community member who held the position of Secretary on the Board of Trade, served on the Quesnel Athletic Council and the Boy Scouts Council, was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion and the Quesnel Volunteer Fire Department. The Allison's lived in this house until 1952. The Allison family is recognized for their contribution to the development of the community with a street named in their honour.

The character-defining elements of Jack Allison House include its:

- excellent representation of the larger residential houses built in Quesnel in the 1930s;

- one-and-a-half storey wood frame building with country charm;

- sympathetic addition of a covered veranda with timber post supports built in 1992;

- central chimney in a steeply pitched gable roof;

- two dormers with gable roof on facade;

- original porch on the western side of the house was glazed in 1952;

- original Cape Code style windows on the facade;

- siting on a large corner lot;

- shutters on first storey windows.