Heritage Register
James Bay

517 Michigan Street
(ex-82 Michigan St)

Built 1891
Heritage-Registered

For: Henry & Nora Munday

Designer/Contractor: Henry & Edwin Munday

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a two-storey, late 19th century, Italianate house featuring a shallow hipped roof with single eave brackets only at the exterior corners. The two floors of the hip-roofed, full-height, rectangular bay on the left front are separated by a shallow hipped roof. The left side of the house has a one-storey, hip-roofed, angled bay towards the rear. All the bays have panels of diagonal V-joint T&G below and between the windows. The details of the front door assembly are well preserved, but there was likely a front porch originally. The rear has a one-storey, gabled extension off-set to the right. The house is clad in drop-siding, the foundation is concrete. .

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Henry Munday built this house for $2000 soon after arriving in the city. He married Nora Woodward in 1892 and they lived here until 1900. Nora came from England in 1890 with her brother, Arthur, and his family. She died in 1935 at 65. A contractor, Henry was involved in the construction of BC’s Parliament Buildings, and built Work Point Barracks, but a smallpox scare suspended his contracting business. He went to the Klondike gold rush, packing food and supplies for miners. Returning to Victoria in 1899 he became a shoe merchant, eventually opening four shoe stores, including Munday’s Fine Shoes which finally closed in the 1990s. Henry died in 1954 at 90. (1091 Joan Cr, Rockalnd)

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

From 1900 the owners of this house were Samuel and Elizabeth (Cullin) Edwards. They arrived in Victoria from Ontario in 1890. Samuel worked as a carriage painter until 1897 when he became a customs officer. He retired in 1921 and died suddenly in 1925 at 58. Elizabeth lived in the house until the mid-1930s. She died in 1943 at 81. In 1930, their youngest daughter, Nora Edwards (1898-1978), married Edgar Fisher (1906-1946) at the Victoria City Temple, where they both had been members of the Sunday School orchestra. They lived in the house until c.1940. Edgar, born in South Africa, was a steamship engineer. Nora was born and died in Victoria.

In 1985, James Bay United Church purchased this building to house their community thrift shop.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register



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