When Owen Crawford-Lem, Artsci’23, moved into 250 Victoria Street in the fall of 2021, he knew he’d lucked into a great house: it was away from the hustle and bustle of the university district’s centre but still only a seven-minute walk to class; it had a great backyard, shared with the other half of the 2½-storey semi; and it backed onto a school with a massive playing field, perfect for impromptu football scrimmages.
But it wasn’t until the fall of 2022 that this great house became an even better home, Mr. Crawford-Lem says. A wholesale change of housemates – and his new gig as rector, the university’s third-highest-ranking officer – kicked his Queen’s experience into high gear.
Mr. Crawford-Lem makes clear that the four housemates with whom he shared 250 Victoria in 2021–22 – and a frame house on Johnson Street the year before that – were good friends. But when they all drifted to other living arrangements in the spring of 2022, Mr. Crawford-Lem saw an opportunity he had been waiting for since the second week of first year.
You see, there are good friends and then there are best friends, brothers from another mother. It was just such a coterie of confreres whom Mr. Crawford-Lem gathered to the bosom of 250 Victoria for one momentous year in the fall of 2022, the beginning of his two-year stint as Queen’s rector.
“These are the people you go through thick and thin with, you know. The people you’re in the library until 2 a.m. with and next day at the Hub, at Stages or Trinity [Social]; the people you’re playing intramurals with, going to the grocery store with, going on adventures with … These are the guys I continue to stay in touch with, and think that they’ll be lifelong friends, in a friendship that really started in the second week of university,” says Mr. Crawford-Lem.
Research by Kingston architectural historian Jennifer McKendry suggests “80 Victoria Street,” as it was known before street renumbering, was built in 1911 with the rental market in mind. Even the earliest rental ads for the property heralded its proximity to campus, so it’s a safe bet that Queen’s students and faculty have a long history at this address.
Mr. Crawford-Lem knows that student rental houses like 250 Victoria are a blessing, and he knows from his time as rector, representing the student body at the highest levels of Queen’s administration, that not all students are equally blessed.
As rector, he says, “almost weekly I would hear horror stories of students showing up to a house showing and there’s 20 other groups all vying for the same five-person [house]. It’s a stressful experience: no longer are you looking for the house that best suits your need, it turns into whatever house you can get.”
Spotlighting the need for more and better student housing became a theme of his tenure as rector, says Mr. Crawford-Lem. It made him appreciate 250 Victoria all the more.
Being rector “is a really big role, there’s a lot of responsibility,” he says. “Your days are long and they can be stressful … but [250 Victoria] was not only a space where I was able to share some of the weight that was on my shoulders but at the same time … [where] I could just be a university student again.”
“It was an experience so many Queen’s students have, and one of the reasons why living in a town like Kingston in the university district is so special,” says Mr. Crawford-Lem.
“So many of us have these really fond memories [of student digs]. It’s because you’re living with your best friends.”
Tell us about the University District house you lived in and the memories you made.
