ARCHITECTURE:
This is a 1½-storey Craftsman cross-gabled house. The front and back gables appear to be large dormers because of their location within the edges of the main roof. The full-width pent roofs across the front and rear are continuous with the main roof; they have Craftsman knee brackets and exposed rafters tails. The side gables are jettied over the lower floor, supported on shallow modillions. There are three cantilevered, bracketed box bays on the front and sides; the bay on the left has a pent roof. There is a bank of three leaded and stained glass stairwell windows on the right side. A small front-facing recessed right corner porch has square posts and a solid balustrade; there is also a right rear porch. Stained art glass is used in many of the windows. The gables have been covered in asbestos shingles; the main floor has bullnosed bevelled siding, and the basement is shingled.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANT:
1910-11: Alfred Shaw constructed this house and sold it the following year.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1912-38: Arthur Parbery (b. Norfolk, ENG, 1860-1938) and Elizabeth (née Doctor, 1861-1934) came to Victoria in 1888. Arthur was the superintendent of the Sayward Mills sash and door factory for a number of years, and left for Edmonton when the company was sold to Canadian Puget Sound Co. They returned to Victoria several years later and he worked as a contractor until retiring.
1939-72: William Rowlandson (1896-1970) and Ada (née Lennon, 1898-1972) lived here until their deaths. Born in Whitehaven, ENG, the Rowlandsons came to Canada in 1920 and to Victoria five years later. William was an engineer for 37 years and retired in 1962.
1973-2004: Jack Kenneth O’Brien (b. Wadena, SK, 1922-2004) bought the property when Ada Rowlandson’s estate was settled in 1973. His parents John Kennedy and Geraldine O’Brien lived in Kuroki, SK, where John was the elevator agent. Jack joined the army during WWII, trained in Maple Creek, SK, and went to Europe in January 1943. He fought in Italy, spent time in Holland, and was demobbed back in Canada in February 1946. The federal Veterans Affairs Department provided funding for his education, a BA and law degree at the University of Saskatchewan, then a Bachelor of Library Science at McGill. He worked at the Harvard Law School Library in Cambridge, MS, then articled with Haldene & Campbell, Barristers, in Victoria from 1954-56, leaving after he was admitted to the bar. He worked at the public library in Prince George before coming to the library at the University of Victoria where he worked until his retirement in 1987. Jack was living in a one-room apartment before he moved into this house. His sister said that he enjoyed tending his garden and orchard on the large property, and loved walking around Victoria looking at the old homes.
After Jack died the property was sold for subdivision and redevelopment; the City required designation of the house as part of the rezoning.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume One: Fernwood & Victoria West