In the attic of a nondescript rooming house in James Bay, there are telltale signs that Emily Carr lived and painted some of her greatest works here.
Two thunderbirds spread their wings on the roof boards above lines of frogs below. The rusting nails where she hung her works to dry are still in the studs and there are paint stains on the creaky floorboards.
Pencilled on the wall are the names and dates of her many pets, written in her hand. A section of chicken wire closes off an opening in the peak of the attic where Carr often slept, to keep Woo, her cherished pet monkey, from messing with her paints and brushes and drying works.
Carr’s self-named House of All Sorts, which she built on Simcoe Street in 1913 to take in boarders to supplement her income as a then-struggling artist, is just a stone’s throw from the more famous Carr House national historical site on Government Street. Carr was born and raised there, and tourists venture through to see how one of Canada’s most famous artists lived.
The House of All Sorts, where Carr spent most of her later years painting, making pottery and writing her books, is much less known.
Now, the building is in need of repairs, and the owner is asking the province for help to preserve the site.
“This property isn’t just a house — it’s a living piece of Canadian history,” said Peter Willis, a third-generation owner of the house at 646 Simcoe St. His grandmother, Margaret Hutton-Potts, originally purchased the home in 1973 and Willis has cared for it since taking ownership in 1989.
“Emily Carr captured the spirit of this land in her work, and this home helped shape that vision,” he said. “We’ve worked hard to preserve it and share it with the public, but it’s unaffordable and we can’t do it alone.”
The house has the only private-provincial designation in the province, but as a provincially designated heritage property it has received no public funding since 1989.
Willis has created four suites — two long-term rentals and two others with stays of a minimum of 90 days. Those suites attract travelling artists, historians, movie producers and tourists inspired by Carr’s works, said Willis.
Willis is not allowed to use the suites as short-term rentals under the province’s legislation to restrict the practice, because he doesn’t live in the house.
He has asked the province for an exemption from the Short-Term Rental and Accommodation Act to allow the house to generate a more “sustainable income” through short-term rentals. That use would echo Carr’s own history of renting rooms at the property.
Willis said the extra income from short-term rentals would help to offset some of his costs.
He hopes to secure provincial heritage funding to eventually restore the exterior of the house to its original form, starting with replacing the roof.
“It would allow me some independence to fund what I need to do here, maintain the place and allow the public to come in,” said Willis.
“A lot of writers and painters come here because they can feel the energy.”
Willis said the house is the only privately provincially designated heritage property in B.C., but is in the “same league” as Point Ellice House or Barkerville, which are exempt on short-term rentals because they are provincially owned.
He plans to remove the stucco on the exterior to expose the original clapboard, and replace the cedar shakes that decorate the top portion of the home. Willis has hired an art historian to determine the house’s original colours.
The estimated cost to do the exterior is about $700,000, said Willis. He said if the province gave him the exemption to the short-term rental act “over time I certainly could get there [on costs] myself.”
“Emily Carr herself rented rooms here to support her art,” said Willis, who retired as a B.C. Ferries second officer after 35 years at the helm of various vessels. He’s currently an operator of the Little Harbour Ferries and a self-proclaimed tourism booster for the region.
“Short-term rentals have been a part of this house’s story since the beginning,” Willis said. “We’re simply asking the province to help us carry on her legacy.”
Willis has submitted formal letters and documentation to the province’s Heritage Branch from December through July, outlining his efforts to secure assistance to ensure the protection of the artwork and legacy of Emily Carr.
Willis said the City of Victoria has expressed informal support for this short-term rental exemption, recognizing its potential to keep the site financially viable.
But despite multiple attempts to work with the province, including the Heritage Branch and several ministries, no funding or any type of assistance has been provided.
The Ministry of Tourism, which has the Heritage Branch in its portfolio, said in a statement that the matter of Emily Carr’s former residence was with the Legal Services Branch in the Ministry of the Attorney General, saying, “We cannot comment.”
The Ministry of Housing did not respond specifically to questions about an exemption for Willis, only providing some suggestions for “unique cases,” such as registering as a strata hotel.
“We also encourage owners of unique properties to explore local exemptions, such as those offered through the City of Victoria’s Transient Accommodation Business Licence program,” the Housing Ministry said.
Carr lived on the second floor of the house and rented ground-floor suites to boarders. Her second floor was converted into two suites, one containing her large studio and the other comprising her kitchen and bedroom.
A second-floor door just off the studio leads up a narrow staircase into the attic, and Willis has left that untouched. There are scuff marks on the walls on the turns of the small staircase, remnants of Carr moving paints and materials to the space where she worked and looked out a window to see her childhood home and the legislature.
She had access to the attic from her studio and placed a bed there.
In her book, House of All Sorts, Carr describes the house she built on a property owned by her father.
“From the front of the house you got no hint that it contained the finest studio in the town,” Carr wrote. “The tell-tale great north light was at the back of the house and overlooked my own garden, dominating its every corner. There were open fields surrounding my garden — fields that were the playgrounds of my Bobtail Sheep-dogs, kennelled behind the lilacs and apple-trees at the foot of the garden. In the crotch of the tree a shelter box was fixed for the comfort of my monkey, Woo, during the summer months.”
Carr also wrote about how running the house with tenants became tedious.
She continued to paint despite criticism of her modernist style.
“I wished my pictures did not have to face the insulting eyes of my tenants,” Carr wrote. “It made me squirm. The pictures themselves squirmed me in their own right too. They were always whispering, ‘Quit, quit this; come back to your own job!’ But I couldn’t quit; I had this house and I had no money. A living must be squeezed from somewhere.”
It wasn’t until Carr was in her late 50s that her work began to gain traction and she was invited to join the Group of Seven.
Carr is now regarded as one of Canada’s most important painters and a leading figure in Canadian modern art with her West Coast landscapes and connections with Indigenous culture.
