Character & Heritage Homes of East Hill

The Norman Bell House: the blacksmith's log home

Built: c. 1916–17 · Style: Colonial bungalow built of rounded, saddle-notched logs
Where: 26th Street, lower East Hill (private residence)

Of all East Hill's older homes, few have a story as personal as this one. Norman Bell was a Montreal-born blacksmith who came west by Red River cart and practised his trade from the age of 16. He ran a blacksmith shop in downtown Vernon, near Fisher's Hardware, for more than 40 years.

Around 1916–17, Bell built his family home on 26th Street out of rounded, saddle-notched logs. It's a hip-roofed colonial bungalow with a bell-cast roof, a central dormer and an inset veranda, about 1,600 sq ft. Bell and his wife lived here for more than four decades.

What makes it special

• A wrought-iron front gate made in Bell's own blacksmith shop, a signature you can still see from the street
• Log walls that the Vernon Morning Star's Heritage Corner column described in 2012 as "virtually unaltered"
• Original leaded-glass windows and a distinctive stone wall along the front walk
• Two fireplaces that originally burned sawdust, a common fuel in a sawmill town

Bell's philosophy, as remembered locally: "Wealth is not measured in dollars and cents, but rather in good health, kind friends and contentment." The home was later owned by one family for more than 60 years, and it's lovingly cared for by its current owners today.

Note: this home is a private residence and is no longer on the City of Vernon Heritage Register (it was removed at a past owner's request in 2019). Please enjoy it from the sidewalk.

Campbell House

Built: 1898 · Style: Queen Anne Revival, with corner tower and conical turret
Where: Top of 30th Avenue ("Suicide Hill"), East Hill (private residence)

East Hill's most photographed house overlooks downtown from the top of 30th Avenue. It was built in 1898 for A.E. Morden, a rancher and prospector who owned the Morning Glory Mine at Okanagan Landing. It's best known for the Campbell family, who ran a furniture store and funeral business in Vernon for many years.

Look for the tall corner tower with its conical turret and finial, fish-scale shingles alternating with drop siding, bay windows, decorated gable ends, and wrap-around verandas with turned rails. The City notes it's one of four homes built on the East Hill above Pleasant Valley Road before 1900.

C.E. Mohr House

Built: 1893 · Style: Second Empire, with mansard roof
Where: 2301 32nd Avenue, at Pleasant Valley Road (now a dental office; heritage plaque on 32nd Avenue)

This is Vernon's remaining example of a high-style Second Empire home, the same style as the Langevin Block on Parliament Hill. It was built in 1893 by C.E. Mohr, a wood turner at Smith and Clerin's Sawmill who is believed to have built it himself.

Look for the mansard roof, dormers with round-headed gables, paired eave brackets and decorative siding panels. It has been rehabilitated as a dental office, and the City's heritage plaque is on 32nd Avenue, where anyone can see it.

S.C. "Sawdust" Smith House

Built: 1908 · Style: Dutch Colonial / Colonial Revival, by architect R.B. Bell
Where: 1705 32nd Avenue (heritage plaque)

S.C. Smith moved his lumber operation to Vernon in 1892. His sash and door factory was the town's largest employer (in 1894 alone it cut 17,000 doors), and he served eight years on City Council. His 1908 home has impressive Tuscan pillars, a balustraded conservatory and Palladian windows. Over the years it has been a convent for the Sisters of St. Anne and, since 1982, home to the Vernon Community Music School, and it's one of the anchors of the historic Lakeview subdivision.

T.E. Crowell House (the second Crowell house)

Built: 1910 · Style: Edwardian "classic box" with Colonial Revival features
Where: 1800 32nd Avenue, at 18th Street (heritage plaque)

The City calls it Vernon's best example of domestic brickwork, which fits: T.E. Crowell was the builder behind Park School, the Vernon Armouries, Central School and the CPR Station, and he bought the Vernon Brickyards in 1902. He built this home for himself across from the Smith House. It was later home to H.K. Beairsto, the long-time school principal for whom École Beairsto Elementary is named.

Sommerville House: the Caetani Cultural Centre

Built: 1895 · Style: Late Victorian
Where: 3401 Pleasant Valley Road (open to the public as an arts centre)

One of the four Victorian homes near the 35th Avenue roundabout, set on a small estate with mature landscaping. It was later the home of artist Sveva Caetani, and it was given to the City and now houses the Caetani Cultural Centre. It's the easiest way to step inside East Hill's history. Check the centre's website for exhibitions and hours.

Urquhart House

Built: 1912 · Style: English Arts and Crafts "Sussex" bungalow, by architect O.B. Hatchard
Where: 2501 23rd Avenue (heritage plaque on the stone gatepost)

Built by local builder Robert Ford and designed by architect Otto Beeston Hatchard, this is a classic example of the twin-gabled "Sussex bungalow" Hatchard became known for. He designed several homes in the neighbourhood, including the Corrigan House on 25th Avenue and his own Hatchard/Piper/Dickson residence a few doors away.

Look for the cobblestone foundation and tall fieldstone chimneys, shingle cladding, half-timbering and roughcast in the gables, decorative verge posts and leaded-glass windows. Inside, according to the City, there's fir panelling, a stone fireplace and an inglenook. At the back of the large lot is a carriage house built with the same Arts and Crafts details. Noted past owners include Dr. Hugh Alexander, a local surgeon, and Dr. Rudy Fischer of Vernon's first X-ray clinic.

The City's plaque was installed in September 2012. The heritage register dates the house to 1913; the plaque says 1912. It's a private residence, so please enjoy it from the sidewalk.

McNair / Billings / Cochrane House

Built: 1893 · Style: Queen Anne, by R.B. Bell
Where: 3201 Pleasant Valley Road (private residence)

A classic free-style Queen Anne design with a tower and a massive hipped roof, home over the years to prominent lawyers Fred Billings and MLA Arthur Cochrane. It's one of the original 1890s "merchant row" homes that made East Hill Vernon's first prestige address.

Wilmot / Adams / Francks / Tullet House

Built: 1906 · Style: Two-storey hip-roof house with double bay windows
Where: 3101 Pleasant Valley Road ("Lovers' Lane"; private residence, designated heritage)

A home with a salvaged-treasure story. When the old Vernon Lodge was demolished, its porch pillars, chandeliers and fireplace found a new life here. Look for the double bay windows and drop siding. Nearly identical additions were added on the north side around 1968. The City formally designated it a heritage property in 1991.

Davies / Richmond / Trehearne House

Built: 1894 · Style: Cross-gabled two-storey frame house
Where: 4008 Pleasant Valley Road (private residence)

One of the 1890s homes strung along Pleasant Valley Road, the old route out of town toward the BX. Decorative shingles and drop siding give it classic late-Victorian texture.

Vans MacDonald / L.R. Clarke House

Built: 1923 · Style: "Modern English" Medieval Revival
Where: 1905 32nd Avenue, Lakeview subdivision (private residence)

A 1920s take on an English manor in miniature, with cross gables, tall chimneys and a stucco finish. Vans MacDonald sold both his business, Vernon Drug Store, and this house to L.R. Clarke. It's a good reminder that East Hill's character homes span from the 1890s through the 1920s and beyond.

Housing for heroes: Vernon's "100 homes"

Built: 1946–1958 · Style: Modest postwar homes, about 800 to just under 1,000 sq ft
Where: 15th Street (formerly Sherbourne Avenue) and nearby East Hill streets

Not every East Hill story is a Victorian mansion. After the Second World War, veterans came home to a national housing shortage. In 1945, the City of Vernon donated land on what is now 15th Street to the Veterans' Land Act program for a small subdivision for veterans and their families. The first 20 homes were allocated in July 1946, first to veterans who had served overseas.

In 1948, the VLA planned 80 more homes on East Hill, and the last were finished in 1958. That's how the neighbourhood got its "100 homes." They were compact and practical, built to make the most of every foot while keeping costs down. Many still stand, renovated and loved by later owners.

The Vernon Museum & Archives article below includes a 1958 photo of the homes on 15th Street (image #22736). For more, see our short history of East Hill.

Source and credit: Gwyneth Evans, Archives Manager, "Housing for Heroes – Vernon's 100 Homes," Vernon Museum & Archives, January 31, 2025. Please visit the museum's site for the full article and photo.