Craigflower Manor Museum

Craiglower Manor is a pre-confederation farmhouse built by Kenneth MacKenzie,1853-56, for the Puget’s Sound Agricultural Company, a subsidiary of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Manor is important because it is one of the oldest remaining farmhouses in British Columbia. It represents the efforts of the Hudson’s Bay Company to establish a base for colonial settlement on Vancouver Island

The house remains as a testament to the life of Victoria’s first Farm Bailiff, Kenneth MacKenzie and his large family. As overseer, the focus of Craigflower Farm, the senior of four farms in the area, was the employment of colonists that marked the transition from fur trade to settlement on the northwest coast.

Known originally as Craigflower Farmhouse, it was the centre of influence of the Scottish population, local society and culture. During 1856 to 1865, the Manor was the hub of social life for Victoria residents and Royal Navy officers from Esquimalt.

Its prominent position, on a grassy knoll has an unobstructed waterfront view of Craigflower Bridge and the Gorge Waterway. The construction of the house, combines Hudson’s Bay Company construction systems with Scottish architectural influences and craftsmanship, adapted to the use of local materials. It was modeled on a Georgian style house that had previously been the MacKenzie family home in Scotland.

From 1965 to 1967 the Manor was restored back to the period style of the MacKenzie family home. It would have been considered grand compared to the modest cottages of most settlers in the 1850s. The house has been furnished as Mrs. McKenzie might have liked it in the 1860s. Remarkably, a number of original MacKenzie items are still in the home, as they would have taken most of their belongings when they left the house in 1866.