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218-20 St. Andrews Street
Alice Carr Residence & School
Built pre-1903, with additions in 1912, 1913
Designated 2010

Alice Mary Carr

The Alice Carr Residence & School is a one-storey, wood-frame vernacular Edwardian-era cottage located on the west side of St. Andrews Street, in the historic James Bay neighbourhood of Victoria. The original front-gabled structure has a series of irregular additions, several attached to the front and a shed-roofed addition to the north side. It is located behind, to the east, of Emily Carr House National and Provincial Historic Site at 207 Government Street and was originally part of the same property. This is also part of an enclave of Carr family houses: in addition to the main Carr House, the Edith Carr house stands at 231 St. Andrews Street and Emily Carr's "House of All Sorts" stands at 646 Simcoe Street.

The Alice Carr Residence & School possesses historical value for its association with Victoria's Carr family, particularly Alice's renowned sister and iconic Canadian artist, Emily Carr. The house has additional value as an early and long-time private kindergarten in Victoria, where Emily Carr periodically taught art classes, and is part of an enclave of Carr family homes. The Carr family members were early Victoria pioneers. Upon arriving in Victoria in 1863, Richard Carr and his wife, Emily, purchased four acres of the former Hudson's Bay Company Beckley Farm and built their family house just west of the newly created Beacon Hill Park. In 1911, the original Carr family acreage was divided into lots and St. Andrews Street was dedicated. The Carr daughters claimed five of these lots and Emily and Edith built houses on the east side of the street in 1913. The structure was originally a gardener's cottage, built prior to 1903, and stood to the rear of the family house. Alice Mary Carr expanded it with a series of additions in 1912 and 1913 to form a diminutive residence as well as a "schoolhouse" and moved her kindergarten here from 620 Battery St. Only a year apart in age and both unmarried, Alice and Emily Carr's adult lives were intimately intertwined. Alice sometimes travelled with Emily on painting expeditions, and often cared for Emily, who suffered from ill health and died in 1945. Alice continued to teach kindergarten until 1943, and reside in her house until her death in October 1953 at the age of eighty-five.

The Alice Carr Residence & School is additionally valued as a tangible representation of James Bay's transition from a pioneer farm to the first Garden City suburb in Victoria. Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor, James Douglas, established James Bay, a peninsula of fertile land, as Beckley farm in 1846. The early subdivision and sale of Beckley Farm land into small lots occurred just after gold was discovered on the Fraser River in 1858. James Bay subsequently developed into a centre for industry and shipping, which facilitated transportation links and residential development. James Bay's industrial Outer Harbour serviced the region's booming resource development. As a result of this commercial activity, smaller workers' homes were built in James Bay's western reaches (closer to the Outer Harbour), while grander homes were, built on the former Beckley Farm. Construction peaked during the Edwardian-era boom, and the Alice Carr Residence & School is representative of the ongoing subdivision and development of James Bay.

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