page_title: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
section_title: Spencer Mansion
hierarchical_section_title: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria / Architecture / Spencer Mansion
caption_attribution_description: English: Panoramic view of the interior, Spencer Mansion (built 1889), Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia. This &#32;image&#32;was created with Hugin.
context_page_description: The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is an art museum located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Situated in Rockland, Victoria, the museum occupies a 2,474.5 square metres building complex; made up of the Spencer Mansion, and the Exhibition Galleries. The former building component was built in 1889, while the latter component was erected in the mid-20th century.
  The institution was established in 1946 as the Little Centre in downtown Victoria. In 1951, the institution was gifted the Spencer Mansion in the neighbourhood of Rockland, and moved into the building in the same year. The institution was renamed the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria when it opened at the Spencer Mansion. From 1955 to 1978, the museum underwent a series of expansions to the building in order to expand the viewing space of its building.
  Its collection works from Canadian artists, indigenous Canadian artists, and other artists from across the Pacific Rim. The museum has also organized and hosted a number of travelling arts exhibitions.
context_section_description: The Spencer Mansion was built in 1889, and was designed by William Ridgeway Wilson. The Spencer Mansion was once a part of a larger property, originally stretching from Fort Street to Rockland Avenue; incorporating a garden, two tennis courts, stables and a coach house. The Spencer Mansion had a belvedere, with a view of the ocean. The Victorian era home was originally built for the Green family, who named the building Gyppeswyk, the Old English name for Ipswich. When Cary Castle, the original Government House, was destroyed by fire in 1903, Gyppeswyck served briefly as the residence of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. The building was donated in 1951 by Sarah Spencer to the institution that became the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
  The exterior of the building has been painted in several different colour schemes since its construction. In 1975 it was painted cream in order to coordinate with the brick used for one of the Exhibition Galleries. The building was re-painted back to its original colour scheme of dark red, dark green, and pale salmon in 2004. The original colour scheme was ascertained after peeling through the building's 15 layers of paint. The building's eastern facade, and portions of the northern facade were largely destroyed with the construction of the first galleries of the Exhibition Galleries during the 1950s. The loss of the porte-cochère, and the installation of a north-side glass-enclosed staircase during the construction of the Exhibition Galleries makes Spencer Mansion inadmissible for designation as a heritage building.  
  The interior of the building has undergone significant changes since its construction, either conducted by the museum, or by previous owners of the building. However, the building still retains a number of features from its original construction, including its original fireplace, ornate tiles and woodworking on the southeast corner of the second floor. In 2004, several renovation works undertaken on the building, including the reconstruction of the rooftop Palladian window, and providing a seismic retrofit to the building's chimney.
  The first floor of the Spencer Mansion houses the museum's gift shop, and art rental and sales office. The former bedrooms on the second floor serve as the museum`s offices, and library, while the museum's archives are located in the building's attic.
caption: Works showcased in the Spencer Mansion, a historic building that forms a part of the building complex.
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