Tom Norwood House

Description
‘Tom’ Norwood House is a charming single storey wood frame house built in 1930 located on the southeast corner St. Laurent Avenue and Callanan Street in North Quesnel, BC. The historic place includes the building and the parcel of land it occupies.

Heritage Value
‘Tom’ Norwood House is located in North Quesnel which is an older residential neighbourhood in the city. While not in its original form, the house is a physical reminder of the people who shaped the development of Quesnel. The building contributes positively to the streetscape that has other houses of similar scale, style, and proportion. The house was built by well-known local contractors, Stanley Oscar and Cyril Augustus Norwood. They came to Quesnel from England and worked with Harry Joyce. The brothers would build a house and live in it while they were building another. As one house was completed, they would move into it, sell the previous house, and start to build another.

The house is named for Stanley Norwood. Stanley was known as ‘Tom’. His nickname was given to him by Harry Joyce who could not remember his given name. The brothers specialized in cabinetry work and the construction of wood frame buildings. They built Quesnel’s first water tower and finished the interior of Telesphore Marion House on Front Street. Charlie Allison, the druggist, often hired the brothers to do carpentry work in his store located in the Hudson’s Bay Company Building on Carson Avenue. The brothers were confirmed bachelors who enjoyed spending their spare time fishing and hunting with their friend Dr. G. R. Baker. Tom liked to tinker with Model-T automobiles. He died in 1962 at the age of 83.

The house was purchased from Tom and Jack Norwood in 1936 by Walter Henning. Walter was a Forest Ranger in the area. He lived here for thirteen years. In 1949, Walter sold the house to the Wilson family. The Wilson family is recognized for their contribution to the development of the community with a street named in their honour.

Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of ‘Tom’ Norwood House include:

• a substantially intact structure;
• an excellent representation of houses built in Quesnel in the 1930s;
• a delightful single storey wood frame house
• its materials give the building a warm texture;
• sympathetic additions were made to the house in 1936, 1949, and 1970;
• a gable roof with central brick chimney;
• large picture windows with shutters;
• a projecting entrance with pediment and an asymmetrical façade with off-center doorway.