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Heritage Register
North Park

929 Caledonia Avenue (ex-147 Chatham St)

Built 1885
Heritage-Designated 2000

For: William & Emily Brooks

929 Caledonia

ARCHITECTURE:

This two-storey, front gabled Homestead-style house is one of a set of four similar houses in a row. This house has retained many of its original features, whilst the neighbouring houses have been variably altered. The string course and frieze in the front gable create the appearance of a pediment. There is a hip-roofed angled bay with panels on the main floor to the right of the hip-roofed entry porch. The porch has brackets, chamfered posts, square balusters and panels in the frieze; it also has its original transom and side-lights. The front gable has fish-scale and square butt shingles. The main house is clad in drop siding, and stuccoed on the left side.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

John H. Turner, an MPP, as BC’s MLAs were originally called, owned Turner Beeton & Co. He owned this property before the house was built.

1885-87: William Henry Brooks (c.1841-1916) & Emily Brock, who died in 1887 of tuberculosis at 38. The 1885 assessments value the house at $1,250. Brooks, an accountant, left Victoria.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1888-1901: Phillip Judah Davies (b. San Francisco 1854-1943) and Estelle Vivian (née Isaacs, 1866-1930) paid the property tax but didn’t reside here until 1893. Phillip came to Victoria in 1863 on the Sierra Nevada. In 1891 he married Estelle in San Francisco. Phillip was an auctioneer in the early 1900s, and later a general labourer and gardener. He became a member of Court Vancouver AOF in 1872.

Tenants: 1890-91: Boot and shoemaker David Jenkins (b. WAL 1835-1904) and Margaret (née Townsend, b. Neath, WAL 1843-1923). Margaret was a teacher who went to Coquimbo, Chile, to marry Jonas Fox. He died in 1876 leaving four children. She taught until 1879, then married widower Jenkins, with nine children. They had three more; six of the 16 later died of diptheria. In 1882 they came to BC, then Victoria. Margaret was active in many women’s groups, including the Conservative Club and Canadian Club, and was a founding member of Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1883 and the Local Council of Women. She became a school trustee in 1897, serving continuously 1902-19, and promoted many educational programmes, including domestic science, now home economics. In 1914 the school board named the new school at 1824 Fairfield Rd for her.

Owners: 1902-06: George Henry Hall (b Westholme, Vancouver Island, 1877-1946) and Maude Lucille (née< Crowe, b. Oakland, CA 1882-1961) married in 1902. George came to Victoria as a boy. He was a wholesale dry-goods merchant; for years he worked with Piercy & Co, then Turner Beeton & Co. He bought that firm in the 1930s, renamed it Hall & Co in 1939, and retired in 1945. The Halls then lived at 1702 Stanley Av.

1907-20: Philip John Jeune (b. Jersey, UK 1865-1957) and Agnes Esther (née Touet, b. Québec 1867-1965) married in 1891. Philip came to Victoria that year. Agnes’s parents were also from Jersey. Philip and his brother Fred operated the Pandora Sail & Tent Factory (1407 Government St, 568 & 570 Johnson St, Downtown) for many years. He retired in 1920, and they farmed in Saanichton.

1921-29, 32: Thomas Henry “Harry” Maynard (b. Kent, ENG 1865-1939) and Eliza Anthony “Lily” (née Teague, b. Cornwall, ENG 1867-1929) were Methodist Salvation Army missionaries when they met on a boat to India. They married in India in 1886, and converted to the Plymouth Brethren faith in 1893. They immigrated to Victoria in 1912.

Tenant: 1930: Carpet cleaner Loxley H. Howson. A rear suite was then added.

1933-35: Sidney Roofing employee Arthur A. and Margaret Coates.

1935-36: In the rear suite, the Maynards’ daughter Edith Joyce (1905-1949), a correspondence instructor, then a student at Victoria College.

1937: Frederick Walter Barber (b. Blackheath, ENG 1891-1961) and Jenny Louise (née Rees, b. Wales 1902-1984) married in 1922. Frederick came to Canada in 1911 and married Hetty Rebecca Dawson in 1914. She died at 26 in 1918 of Spanish Influenza while Frederick served overseas with the 16th Battalion Canadian Scottish Regiment from 1917-19. Five of Fred’s sons served with the same regiment in WWII.

1938-42: Japanese fisherman Kunizo Uyede and Matsu (née Nakagawa) married here in 1912. Listed as “Orientals” in 1942, they were sent to internment camps in the interior, and their property was confiscated.

Owners: 1943-46, 51-53: George Taylor (b. Aberdeenshire, SCT 1886-1944) and Margaret Helena (née> Dane, b. Fermanagh, IRL 1881-1955) came to BC in 1917. George was a watchman. Margaret lived here on and off after his death.

Tenants: 1947: James and Edna McPherson; James worked at HMC Dockyard. 1948-49: Mrs. Marion Reid.

1950: Erling Senem, carpenter.

1947-51: Tip Top Coffee Shop waitress Mrs. Rose M. Ross.

1952-55: Canadian government helper Arthur Smith.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Map of Victoria Heritage Register Properties

• North Park History

• North Park Heritage Register

• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Three: Rockland, Burnside, Harris Green,
Hillside-Quadra, North Park & Oaklands


© VICTORIA HERITAGE FOUNDATION (VHF) 2020   Email:vhf@victoriaheritagefoundation.ca
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