Jones Residence

The Jones Residence is significant as a rare surviving example of an early prefabrication system. During the Edwardian era, the western provinces were experiencing unprecedented population growth, and in response, in 1904 the Vancouver-based B.C. Mills, Timber and Trading Company patented a modular prefabricated building system that could be adapted to provide everything from modest one-room cottages to churches, schools and banks. Wall panels were assembled from the short mill ends of lumber and siding, until then just waste material that piled up in the millyard. These panels were bolted together on site, with the joints between the panels covered by distinctive vertical battens. Wall panels were assembled at the mill, pre-painted, and packaged with the other components and the instructions necessary to assemble the building. The disassembled building was then shipped to the waiting customer. As western settlements became established, labour and materials were more freely available and local construction companies could be more competitive in their costs. By 1910 this prefabricated system was rendered obsolete.

The Jones Residence is also significant as an example of working class housing of the era. Modest in scale, the choice of a prefabricated system for this house demonstrates that the system was financially viable for different levels of income. The original owner was William Dallas Jones (1856-1943), a conductor on the B.C. Electric Railway and from 1913 to 1933 a ticket taker on the North Vancouver ferry.