The House that John Built: 1860’s construction techniques and gas lighting

Interview with Linda and Davyd, the current owners of the house.  Davyd completed the house restoration work.

Location: Linda and Davyd are standing on the sidewalk, at the opening in a green picket fence with deep burgundy trim.  Behind the fence is a small garden yard and then the house; a tall two-storey, front-gabled with decorative shingles on the gable; three double-paned windows over a hip-roofed verandah.  On the left of the verandah is the entry door with sidelights.   The house is green with deep burgundy trim.

On the right of the gateway is commemorative plaque with text and 3 images mounted on a fence at a slight angle visible to passersby.

Linda is standing with her hands folded in front, Davyd  has his hands behind his back.  Throughout the video there are hand movements, occasionally hand gestures to the house or partial turns towards the house.

On-screen text: The House that John built: 1860’s construction techniques and gas lighting

David: One of the interesting aspects of the construction of this house is that it is

[Camera is panning across the front of the house and top to bottom of the house while Davyd continues talking]

typical of the early 19th century houses in that is it is balloon frame construction. That means the walls run directly from the basement right up to the attic.

[Camera is now focused back on Davyd and Linda]

The difference in this house is that it’s kind of a hybrid.  Beams are nailed together but they are also used mortise and tenon, the old post and beam method of construction, which is how wood frame buildings were originally built.

I don’t know if John was involved in the building himself or whether other members of the community were.

The carpenters didn’t trust these newfangled nail connectors and so they also utilized the old-fashioned mortise and tenon system. All of the floor joists are mortised into the rim joists, then the studs are mortised into the plates.  In its original location on Vancouver Street, the house was on posts and those posts snapped off when it was moved.  But the tenons with their pegs are still in the house here, which gave us a clue about the construction techniques used.

The other interesting thing is that when we did some repairs on the ceiling we discovered that there were old gas lines, so this house, when it was constructed,had gas lighting if you can imagine that!  The first gas plant was built in Victoria about 1860, the nearest other gas plant was west of Toronto.

I think that because this house was located close to downtown it could have gas lighting at that time.