2645 Fernwood Road

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a two-storey, front-gabled Arts & Crafts house with a rear shed-roofed addition, all covered with double bevelled drop siding (excepting a half-timbered gable). It has a cantilevered box bay window at front left, and an inset right corner entry porch with a classical pedimented portico in front of it, both with chamfered square support pillars (the portico is supported on tapered stone piers). There are some stylistic discrepancies: the upper right front window has been altered from the original, and the entry portico has exposed rafter tails, while the eaves (although open) have none. The original front steps, which were contained in an enclosed balustrade like the porch, came out to a landing behind the piers, and then turned and went down to the right. In 2017 the exterior was painted in the original colours with financial assistance from VHF.

The Parfitt Brothers were prolific contractors. They had their office at 1923 Fernwood Rd (Fernwood), and there were many Parfitt houses in the Fernwood and Oaklands area. A number of the family lived nearby up the hill, including Fred and Sarah Parfitt at 2663 Fernwood Rd.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

The Pollard family owned this property until the mid-1930s. Henry James and Emily (Crossman, 1852-1922) Pollard emigrated from Bristol, England, in 1908, and possibly knew members of the Parfitt family in Britain. Henry was a music instructor in Victoria Public Schools for nearly 20 years. After Emily’s death, Henry lived here with son John Hampdon Pollard (1887-1960) until 1927, then returned to Bristol, where he died in 1930. John, a postal clerk, married Henrietta May Carter, of Plymouth, England, in 1926, and they were still living in the house in the mid-1930s. John died in Esquimalt.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

By 1939, school principal George Henry Ebenezer Green (1900-1975) and his wife Violet (1899-1977), daughter of Fred and Sarah Parfitt, owned the house. Born in Sheffield, England, George in 1924 married Violet, born in Bristol, England, who came to Canada in 1910. George received his PhD in Education from the University of Toronto in 1944, and later completed a degree in Optometry in Los Angeles. He was Principal of Quadra St School (3031 Quadra St, Hillside/Quadra) for many years, and also ran an optometry practice. Violet received her teaching degree from the Provincial Normal School. George and Violet also shared an interest in music – he played first trumpet in the Victoria Symphony Orchestra for 12 years, and she was an organist at Emmanuel Baptist Church for many years
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Rev Ernest W. Robinson, pastor of Glad Tidings Church, and his wife Capitola lived here from the late-1940s until the mid-1950s.