ARCHITECTURE:
This two-storey Italianate has a low-pitched hipped roof and a façade dominated by a full-height, panelled, angled bay. The front entry to the left of the bay has a flat roofed porch with fluted columns and half-round pilasters on chamfered square bases; there are turned balusters on the balustrade. The columns have lost their original Corinthian capitals, and the balcony balustrade is gone. The house is clad in drop siding, although one side is stuccoed. There is a brick chimney.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1870s-1911: Samuel Thomas Styles (b. Bledlow Ridge, Bucks, ENG 1842-1911) married Mary Elizabeth (née Walker, b. ENG 1840-1875) in 1861 in London, ENG and immigrated here the same year. Of the seven houses he built, 1517, 1519, 1521, 1525, 1527 and 1529 Amelia St, and 836 Cormorant St the family home at 1519 is thought to be the earliest constructed. He had a brief partnership with John Kinsman and they built the BC Penitentiary in New Westminster in 1878. Sam constructed many of Victoria’s earliest buildings, including some in the naval yard in Esquimalt. His wife Mary and son Herbert drowned when the SS Pacific sank near Cape Flattery, 4 Nov 1875. A City alderman for many years, he retired in 1891. Daughter Elizabeth “Lizzie” Kezia (1873-1963) married Frank Joseph Sehl (1871-1958) (1515 Quadra St).
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1911-13: Spencer Dept Store employee William Adamson (b. SCT 1874-1968) brought wife Charlotte (née McIntosh, b. ForFar, SCT 1875-1913) here in 1908 hoping to cure her phthisis. He joined the CEF in Edmonton in 1915, went overseas with 49th Btn and transferred in the field to PPCLI.
1918-20: Engineer Axel Richard Nyman (b. Stockholm, SWE 1886-1980) married Elvera Catherine (née Taddie, b. Victoria 1891-1963) in Vancouver in 1911. He was with the City and Empress Hotel before moving to Vancouver, where he retired as a super cargo stevedore.
1921-25: WWI widow Margaret Straith Eddie (née Duncan, b. Perth, SCT 1870-1940) came to Canada with husband George Findlay Eddie in 1910. Daughter Emma “Emmie” (b. New Kilpatrick, SCT 1904-1993) married their lodger Crawford Ellis (b. London 1883-1962) in the house in 1925.
1926-27: BCCSS painter Frederick Burke (b. London, ENG 1874-1937) and Emma Elizabeth (née Price, b. London, ENG 1871-1959). During WWI, he joined the CEF in Weyburn, SK and went overseas with 152nd Btn.
1930-42: Joseph Green (b. Liverpool, ENG 1883-1968) and Sarah “Sadie” (née Hunter, b. Edinburgh, SCT 1895-1960). He served in the Naval Reserve during WWI. He was a billiard marker at The Bull, a billard club on Government St before retiring as janitor for the Eagles Home.
1944-52: Christina MacKinnon (née Paterson, Harris, Inverness, SCT 1892-1976), daughter Sheila (b. Victoria 1918-1965), BC Tel senior operator, and son Malcolm John (b. Vancouver 1923-1990), plumber with C.J. McDowell.