Emily Carr House

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Emily Carr House is a National Historic Site of Canada located in Victoria, British Columbia Canada. It is most famous for being the childhood home of Canadian painter Emily Carr, and for having a lasting impression on her paintings and writings.^[1]

1 Early history and Emily Carr link
2 Later history and restoration
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early history and Emily Carr link

Built in 1863 for the affluent Carr family, the house was originally situated at 44 Carr street on a large property owned by Emily Carr's father, Richard. The building was designed in an Italianate style by prominent local architects Wright & Saunders, who also built another Victorian National Historic Site; the Fisgard Lighthouse. The area was the heart of 19th century Victoria, with many other merchants, businessmen, and politicians such as the Dunsmuirs living in the area; many of whom built other historic buildings, such as Helmcken House.^[2] Structurally, the building is an excellent, and well-preserved, heritage example of the Italianate villa style popular at the time.^[1]^[3]

However, the site is most notable for its association with Canadian painter Emily Carr. Born in 1871, Carr spent nearly all of her life within walking distance of her family home, and the environment left a lasting impression on her which is mentioned in all of her books.^[2] In The Book of Small, a young Emily offers a description of Carr street, and her house, as it appeared around 1880:

Our street was called Carr Street after my Father. We had a very nice house and a lovely garden... Carr Street was a very fine street. The dirt road waved up and down and in and out. the horses made it that way, zigzagging the carts and carriages through it. The rest of the street was green grass and wild roses. [...] In front of our place Father had made a gravel walk but after our trees stopped there were just two planks to walk on.

As far back as I can remember Father's place was all made and in order. The house was large and well-built, of Californian redwood, the garden prim and carefully tented. Everything about it was extremely English. It was as though Father had buried a tremendous homesickness in this new soil and it had rooted and sprung up English. There were hawthorn hedges, primrose banks, and cow pastures with shrubberies."^[4]

Emily lived in the Emily Carr house for most of her childhood, before leaving to pursue artistic training in San Francisco, Paris and London.^[5] Her father's death in 1888 left ownership of the farm to her elder sister, Edith Carr, who divided up the estate into lots which were sold off, with the Carr sisters retaining five of them.^[2]

Upon her return to Victoria in 1913, Emily built her own house adjacent to Emily Carr House at 646 Simcoe Street. Her time here, including the art school she ran, were immortalized in her book The House of All Sorts — the structure still stands to this day, and contains a First Nations mural on the attic roof painted by Carr. Her sisters Edith and Alice also built houses surrounding Emily Carr House — Alice Carr House was run as a kindergarten by Alice, and Emily occasionally held art lessons in the building.^[2]

[edit] Later history and restoration

Emily Carr House passed through the Carr family for several years, before being sold to a private owner for use as a rental property. The building was extensively modernized, following a fire in 1938. In 1964, MP David Goos saved the building from demolition and turned it over to the Emily Carr Foundation three years later, for use as an art gallery and school known as the Emily Carr Arts Centre. In 1976, the provincial government purchased the property, and helped return the building to its original condition.^[6]

The building was extensively restored by two different architects, undoing many of the additions and modernizations that had been added to the house since the 19th century. The wood finishes, mentioned by Carr, were restored from scratch, while the exterior of the house was returned to its original design and color using period photos from Emily Carr's lifetime.^[7]^[8]^[9] The interior of the house is faithful to the original, following the painstaking removal of layers of newer paint and wallpaper to discover the original pattern and colors used inside.^[10]

Most of the original artifacts in the home have long-since been replaced; however, a handful have been recovered and restored. The Carr family Bible was recovered, along with some of the original pieces of hardware for the doors and windows. Most items from the house have been replaced with replicas, or other period artifacts — such as the piano in parlour, which was originally owned by neighbours of the Carr family.^[11]

Emily Carr House is currently run as a museum and art gallery by the provincial government, and is located at 207 Government street; following the pavement of Carr street, and its subsequent renaming. In addition to the heritage rooms and artifacts on exhibit in the museum, it also has an extensive exterior garden and a "People's Gallery", where local artists inspired by Emily Carr display their work.^[10]