Heritage Register
Rockland

1032 McGregor Avenue
Warburton

Built 1896
Heritage-Designated 1984

For: Robert & Edith Verrinder

Architect: Alfred Bodley

ARCHITECTURE:

Warburton is one of Victoria’s foremost examples of the Shingle style, typified by its irregular form unified by a continuous skin of shingles. It has no cornerboards or stringcourses, and its shingles are all in the same half-cove (tabbed) pattern, unlike a Queen Anne house that might take a similar shape but have a variety of claddings broken up by structural and decorative interruptions such as pent roofs. It also has a typical Shingle tower that is integrated into the house structure on the right front corner, rather than being a distinctive architectural element. The side-gabled house is 2½ storeys high, with a 2½-storey side-gabled wing on the left side and an attic storey that is jettied for several feet on the right side. It has a ribbed brick chimney. The octagonal domed tower has windows on four sides that continue in a strip across the right gable. There are some interesting ceramic panels on the house, including several in the eaves of the tower and right gable, one on the façade depicting two gryphons facing a stylized lily, and another in the right gable showing a lily. The lily motif also appears in a stained-glass window on the front façade. The foundation is finished in stucco simulating the rough stone often found on Shingle houses; the same stucco has also been incongruously applied on the walls and pediment of a glassed porch on the front façade. Sited on the hillside overlooking Fort St, the house is a major landmark. It cost $3,500 in 1896.

Architect Alfred Bodley (b. Mt Forest, ON 1870) paid the property taxes until 1896. He worked in Toronto with his father Charles, a carpenter, in 1888, was in Victoria from 1891 with his brother, contractor Samuel W. Bodley, but by 1897 was in London, ON, then Toronto. He moved to Seattle, WA, c.1902, in 1904 briefly partnered with John Graham, Sr, and in 1907-08 with the Beezer Brothers.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1896-1930: Dr. Robert Ford Verrinder (1864-1944) paid taxes on this property from 1896. Robert was born in Wisconsin, where he likely received his education in dentistry. He began practising in Victoria shortly after his arrival c.1889. In 1893 Robert married Victoria-born Edith Mary (Mae) Harrison (1871-1959). His brother Dr. Arthur E. Verrinder came to Victoria in 1891, built 1731 Rockland Av in 1896, and shared a dental office as Verrinder Brothers until his death in San Francisco in 1900. Robert served overseas with the Canadian-Siberian Expeditionary Force in 1918 as a Major. He was in charge of soldiers’ dental care in Esquimalt under the Army Dental Corps for some time. Edith moved to Vancouver after Robert’s death.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1931: Widow Hilda Sharps (née Sales, 1879-1954) came to Victoria from England in 1910. Her husband, Henry Angell Sharps (c.1873-1924), died of tuberculosis at their residence at Prospect Lake. She moved to Vancouver in 1932.

1933-35: Martin “Stanley” and Julia Mary T. Wheatley, and their son Victor (b. Brandon, MB 1896-1953).

1937-38: Lionel Albert Hansard (1890-1966) and Winifred White (née Clements, 1890-1964) came to Canada from England in 1914; Lionel was a clerk at the Union Club, then employed at the Esquimalt Dockyard until retiring in 1953.

1939-45: George Eagle (1872-1952) and Rebecca (née Key, 1875-1948) immigrated from England in 1914 and came to Victoria in the mid-1930s. George served overseas during WWI and was a janitor for 20 years before retiring in 1945.

1946-47: Retired surveyor Joseph Burton Conway (1886-1951) and his wife Glyta Evelyn (née Davis). Joseph served overseas during WWI, and was a member of the Canadian Society of Forest Engineers. He retired in 1931, and they came to Victoria from Ontario in 1940.

1948-51: The house was converted to a five-suite apartment building. Saanich School Board custodian Archie H. Wright (b. N IRL 1896-1966) and Marie (née O’Brien) were the owner/managers.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Map of Victoria's Heritage Register Properties

• Rockland History

• Rockland Heritage Register


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