ARCHITECTURE:
Oak Crest, a 1½-storey Arts & Crafts house, is unusual for Victoria in that it is built almost completely of granite and brick. The steep front-gabled roof, with wide eaves and exposed raftertails, is broken on the right side by a through-the-cornice wall dormer over a square bay. The dormer has a semicircular, multi-paned window with a dressed stone surround and a keystone in the brickwork above. On the left side is a small shed-roofed dormer. On the front above a wide brick belt course, two colours of diapered brick culminate in a lunette attic window above two multi-paned windows with brick casings. Ground floor windows are multi-paned-over-one and have segmental stone arches, as does the recessed front porch. It has its original front door with half-length side lights and a massive, battered stone pier. The rear has grey brickwork, below stucco and half-timbering, with no stonework. Street widening truncated its gracious front steps. On the brow of the hill at 2906 Cook St is Spencer Castle, also built of granite but on a much grander scale. Rice was a draughtsman for E&N Railway, then for BC DPW. In 1920 he teamed with architect Karl Branwhite Spurgin to design the Saanich War Memorial Health Centre at 4353 West Saanich Rd (Heritage Designated).
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Owners: 1917-36: Arthur John Coleman (b. Marshfield, ENG 1885-1979) married Alice Rose (née Hook, b. Glam, WAL 1888-1939) here in 1913. He came to Canada in 1910 as a labourer and worked his way from Ottawa to Victoria on construction, including banks in Winnipeg and buildings for the University of SK in Saskatoon. He took his naturalization papers out in USA in 1923 and gave his occupation as bricklayer. Back here he joined Parfitt Construction, working on Christ Church Cathedral (908-912 Vancouver St/911 Quadra St) from 1926-29. In the 1950s he did stonework on the John diCastri-designed Robin Dunsmuir home, 2979 Seaview Rd, Saanich. For his own house, he laboriously collected all the granite himself, some from the road allowance, and lived in the house while building it. In 1936 the mortgage was foreclosed and they lost the house. Arthur later married Nellie Carter (b. NZ 1886-1980).
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Renters: 1937: Charles Victor Embleton (b. Bournemouth, ENG 1892-1964) married Sybil Ellen (née Richardson, b. Malton, Yorks, ENG 1888-1961) in 1915 in Steyning, Sx, ENG. He was a 2nd Lieut. with 13th Sussex Regt during WWI. They immigrated to Canada in 1915 returned to England and came out to BC in 1918. Embleton was a Special Duty Constable with RCMP and worked with BC government. Their daughter Sybil Jean Embleton, LAW, RCAF (WD) served during WWII.
1939-44: LCPL David Richard Armstrong Campbell, DCM, president of Campbell Surgical Supplies on Fort St (b. Lasswade, SCT 1891-1946) married Eva (nee Hicks, b. Leadville, CO, USA 1891-1989) in King Co, WA, USA in 1920. He enlisted with 72nd Btn Seaforth Highlanders in 1915, was WIA in 1917 and released in 1918.
Owners: 1945-52: Lieut. Noel Anthony “Tony” Henry Hutton, RCN (b. W Hartlepool, Durham, ENG 1904-1967) married Alexandria Caroline Elizabeth (née Urchenko, b. Wilkie, SK 1914-1981) here in 1944. From 1949-50 he was exec. officer of HMCS Cedarwood. Pre-WWII, he captained the tug George McGregor that capsized off Trial Island in 1949. They briefly ran Mid-Town Grocery on Shelbourne St, then in 1953 moved to San Diego, CA.
1952-53: The house was sold at auction.
1953-63: Arthur Geydon Hemming (b. Leamington, ENG 1901-1963) married Beatrice Ethel (née Harris, b. Pietersburg, SA c.1903) here in 1925. His family came to Canada in 1908. In 1921 his parents were living in the Cariboo and he was boarding in Port Alberni working as a sawyer. Arthur and Beatrice loved to Victoria in 1929 and he was a janitor for JBAA. From 1937-45 Hemming was employed in the warehouse, Liquor Control Board. He worked as an operator for Yarrows, then as an Engineer with Crow & Gonnason Lumber Co (3010 Quadra St) before being employed with DND at Colwood. He retired and relocated to Mill Bay in 1963, where he drowned six weeks later in a boating accident off Bamberton