Heritage Register
Fernwood

1414 Pembroke Street
(ex-South Rd, 106 North Pembroke St)

Built 1888, 1907-14
Heritage-Designated 2007, includes garage

For: Mary & George Crowther

ARCHITECTURE:

This house was originally a 1-storey, L-shaped Victorian house with a full-width front verandah and a back porch. The house was rebuilt between 1907-14 as an Edwardian Vernacular Arts & Crafts: 1½ storeys with a steeply-pitched, cross-gabled roof with dormers on each side. There are stringcourses above the windows in all the gables. On the left side of the main floor is a cantilevered angled bay; on the right side are a box bay and a stained glass piano window. On the front left is an enclosed porch below a wide beltcourse; the chamfered square posts were retained. To the right is an angled bay under a hipped roof. A small recessed entry porch sits between the bay and enclosed porch. The siding is bullnosed double-bevelled on the main and upper levels, with shingles in the gable peaks and on the basement level. The left part of the porch was enclosed in the 1970s.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1888-1951: Mary Ann “Annie” (née Emery, b. Burslem, Staffs, ENG, 1867-1951) and George Crowther (b. Huddersfield, Yorks, ENG, 1859-1931) came to Victoria in 1883 and 1885 respectively. They married in 1888 and moved into the house. [According to the family, they were the first couple married in the new St Luke’s Anglican Church at Cedar Hill & Cedar Hill Cross Rds in Saanich.] The house was still the original shape when they took out a sewer permit in late 1907. George likely worked on the reconstruction of the house in order to create more room for the family. However, by WWI the family was dispersed, and George never finished the attic rooms.

George was a general engraver in wood and metals, a stencil cutter, and a seal engraver; his workshop for many years was in the Green Block on Broad St, then at 816 Wharf St. He was a member of the BC Garrison Artillery and the French Benevolent Society until its amalgamation with the Royal Jubilee Hospital. One daughter Rosabel, a dressmaker, died at 30 of tuberculosis.

The Crowther’s son Harry Norman (1894-1986) served in WWI with the 2nd Battery Field Division Light Artillery, entertaining the troups overseas. In 1917, after Harry was demobilized, he came back and founded Crowther Bros Bicycles with his brother George Stanley “Stan”, an electrician, also selling radios and electrical supplies until Stan retired in 1950. Harry, a bicycle mechanic, then only sold bicyles until retiring in the 1960s. Harry was a member of Victoria Silver Threads and entertained with them in many local concerts; during WWII he was with the Red Shield Concert Party in Victoria. He was a life member of the Royal Canadian Legion, Pro Patria Branch #31. Harry married presser Rosie Annie Ford in 1929. She died in 1937, and he married Mabel Violet Grimes c.1942.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1951-88: At her death Annie Crowther was still living at 1414 Pembroke with their daughter Josephine (1897-1986), a laundress with New Method Laundry, who lived in the house all her life. Josephine’s brother Alfred Oliver “Ollie” (1891-1975), an automobile mechanic, married Edith Mary Smith in 1915. In the 1940s-60s he lived by himself in an attic bedroom that was finished for him. During WWII, he worked at Victoria Machinery Depot (VMD), a major local employer in the war effort. Ollie married again in the 1970s to Lela Merle Norris. Josephine’s sister, elevator operator Ethel Maud (1899-1988) married grocer Cyril Walter Speak in 1923. After Cyril’s death in 1969, Ethel moved in with Josephine and lived here until her death.

1988-91: the Crowther family developed the attic and rented out the house. Harry’s daughter Viola Barr inherited the house.
1991-2012: Viola sold it to Jane Ramin, who requested Heritage Designation by the City of Victoria.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register

• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume One: Fernwood & Victoria West