ARCHITECTURE:
This is a two-storey, front-gabled Homestead house with cross gables at the rear. The cross gables are extensions, not bays. On the right side is a through-the-roof wall dormer. There is a hip-roofed, wrap-around verandah with turned square posts and pilasters. It has two entrances on the verandah, one in the front and one at the rear. It is clad in beaded, double-bevelled siding. This house was 89 North Chatham before 1907, then 1341 Gladstone until after 1951. It was converted to a duplex in 1957.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Owners: 1887-1946: Georgina (née Washington, b. Oakville, ON, 1832-1928) and Richard Samuel Hale (b. Omemee, ON 1832-1915) came to BC in 1877. According to assessments Georgina Hale bought the property from Benjamin William Pearse of Fernwood estate in 1885. They lived in this house until c.1897, then rented it out for some years while they lived in Nelson, BC. Richard was a millwright and boat builder. Their son George Washington Hale (b. Oakville, ON, 1872-1942) was a ships carpenter and worked for Elliot & H Ship Builders in Nelson, BC. He was a member of the Nelson lodges of IOOF and AF&AM. George signed the plumbing permit in 1910.
1921-46: George Hale married bookkeeper Innis Parker (b. Kitchener, ON, 1890-1946) in 1919 in Vancouver. They moved back to the house with his mother Georgina in 1921. George worked as a boat builder on Wharf St. They resided here until their deaths with their daughter Isabel G. Hale, a saleswoman for HBC.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Tenants: 1908-11: Pipe fitter and mechanic Ernest and Cecelia Ann Bevilockway married in 1887 in Nanaimo.
1912: Helen Dawson, an employee of BC Telephone Co. 1913: Contractor Herbert Cookson came to Canada in 1912.
1914: City barnman (stableman) and teamster George Thomas “Tom” and Charlotte Foley. Tom was in the militia, transferring from the 50th Gordon Highlanders when he volunteered for the CEF in Dec 1915. Because of his age, he was put into the Special Service Co, 1st Canadian Pioneers CEF Base Co. Tom later worked for 20 years as a gardener at Tranquille Sanatorium near Kamloops, retiring in 1946.
1917: Plasterer John and Sarah Elizabeth Hallett came to Victoria from Birkenhead, England, in 1911.
1920: Thomas Samuel and Kate Emily Clarke; Thomas was a porter at Spencer’s and later a janitor.
Owners: 1950-57: Yarrows shipyard blacksmith Thomas and Alice Wilson converted it to a duplex in 1957.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume One: Fernwood & Victoria West