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Heritage Register
James Bay

225 Montreal Street

Built 1909
Heritage-Registered

For: Walter & Hannah Stoddart

Builder: Walter Rowland Stoddart

225 Montreal

ARCHITECTURE:

This one-storey Arts & Crafts Bungalow is hip-roofed on the front and gable-on-hip-roofed on the rear; there is a variation of a Palladian window in the gable. The house has a hip-roofed dormer on the front and on each side. All hipped roofs have exposed, notched rafter tails to support the faschias and gutters. It has a cantilevered angled bay on the right side of the house and a recessed porch with a single Tuscan column on the right at the rear. The centrally located steps lead to an inset porch on the front left and a cantilevered angled bay to the right. The porch has paired and tripled Tuscan columns on a solid balustrade. The transoms in the bays, on the porch, and a piano window on the right side on Ontario St, have art glass. The main body of the house is clad in double-bevelled siding, with shingles on the dormers, rear gable and the basement. The foundation is concrete and there are two corbelled brick chimneys. A period garage survives at the left side of the house. The property is notable for the two Windmill Palms on the Ontario side.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Walter Rowland Stoddart was a carpenter and builder with his brother George Stoddart. For many years they lived in the Harriet Rd area. In 1895 they built 3251 Harriet, now a registered heritage house in Saanich. Walter was born in London, England, in 1866 and came to Victoria c.1890. His wife, Hannah, born in Yorkshire, England, came to Canada in 1900 and Victoria in 1909. In 1910 she married Walter and they lived in this house until 1911. Walter died at 73 in 1939, Hannah at 79 in 1959.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

From 1912 until at least 1916 the owners were John and Jessie Ringshaw. John, a butcher, was proprietor of a delicatessen at the corner of Broad and Yates Sts. He was in business in Victoria for 23 years, and died in Vancouver in 1930 at 52.

William Robinson, an accountant with British American Paint (309 Belleville St, James Bay), rented from 1912-13. From 1914-c.1917, Charles and Annie (Rainey) Hearnden rented. Charles, a carpenter, came to Canada from England in 1904. Annie was born in Ireland and came to Victoria c.1910. They married in 1919. Charles died in 1939 at 68. Annie moved to Vancouver and died there in 1966 at 76.

Through the 1920s and 1930s, Isabella Margaret (Smith) Cameron, widow of Malcolm Cameron, and her sons George and Neil lived here. The Camerons came to Victoria from Ontario in the mid-1890s. Malcolm, a teamster and night watchman, died suddenly in 1920 at 55. Isabella died in 1942 at 73. George was a sheet metal worker for 30 years. He never married and died in 1956 at 65. Like his brother, Neil never married. He served with the 15th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery and in France with the 31st Battalion during WWI. He was a shoe store proprietor in Prince Rupert from the mid-1920s for 30 years. He returned to Victoria and died in 1959 at 65.

From 1940 to c.1960, this was the home of J.T. Mann, Plumbing, Heating & Burners. Proprietor James Thomas Mann was born in Victoria in 1887. His father, James Goodfellow Mann was a Victoria pioneer and co-owner of the lumber firm, Muirhead & Mann (223 Robert St, Vic West). James Thomas married Pearl, Victoria-born daughter of Anton and Emily Vigelius, in 1910. James was a member of the Native Sons of Canada, Vancouver-Quadra Lodge No. 2, AF&AM, Royal Arch Masons and Western Gate Preceptory. He died in 1957 at 69. Pearl lived here several years after James died. She was a member of Victoria Chapter 17 OES, Silver Threads, and James Bay and Victoria West Golden Age Clubs. Pearl received a Centennial Medallion in 1967 and died in 1968 at 81.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:


• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register

• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Two: James Bay


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