953 Empress Avenue

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a good example of the Arts & Crafts Craftsman style, which swept through Victoria, especially Fairfield, after 1910. It exhibits all the expected elements: brick columns rising from the ground to support squat columns under a full-width recessed verandah; a low-pitched, side-gabled roof with dramatic open eaves and exposed rafter-tails; a centred gable dormer; wide bargeboards with deep bird’s mouth tips and appliquéd square blocks to imitate beam ends; triangular knee braces and decorative stick work in the gable peaks. However, a 1937 photo suggests that a few other Craftsman features — shingled cladding below the porch and siding on the main floor, wooden columns and some Tudoresque half-timbering in the porch gable — have been hidden by pink-based, bottle-glass stucco from c.1945. The stucco was the “cheap” job for $200; for $500 the contractor would have removed all the siding, and window and door frames. The interior is largely original, with most woodwork still dark stained, including ceiling box beams and pocket doors.

This house was designed by Seattle architect Elmer Ellsworth Green who designed at least 20 houses in Victoria and area, including 1442 Rockland Av (Rockland), 1961 Fairfield Pl (Gonzales), and 162 Robertson St (Gonzales). He also designed California Bungalows for Bungalow Construction Co in 1912-13, including many on Durban (423, 451), Kipling (435) and Carnsew Sts, an area in Fairfield dominated by that company. [In the 1890s, E.E. Green and family lived on Ten Mile Point, Cadboro Bay, where Green was manager of the Giant Powder Works.] From 1912-15 je jas a Victoria office at #616-1207 Douglas St. While in Victoria he lived with his brother Royal Green, a contractor, at 2740 Bowker St, Oak Bay, which Elmer designed and Royal built.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Owners: 1913-16: George Alfred Leach (1874-1936) and Mary Jane (née Mills, 1876-1951) came in 1911 from Millbrook, ON, where George’s father, a veteran of the Fenian Raids, was a druggist for over 50 years. George, a realtor, built several speculative houses during Victoria’s pre- WWI boom; he was later a telegraph operator. During WWI he was the sargeant in charge of staff clerks at Work Point in Esquimalt. Son Eric enlisted in the 5th Regiment, went overseas in 1917, and was chosen to play his trumpet before King George V.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1916-17: Produce broker Howard William Hudson (1872-1944) and Urania Adelaide (née Nelson, 1884- 1969) then moved to Vancouver.

1918: Reginald T. Ward, secretary of the National Motor Co.

1920-25: Rev William D. Spence, pastor of First Congregational Church (1600 Quadra, North Park), and his wife Lizbeth Jane owned it.

1925: Edwin Dingle (1857-1951) and John Prisk (1881- 1950), who held the Spences’ mortgage, took possession.

Tenants: 1923-24: YMCA general secretary James M. Graham. 1926: Rev. Alec McMinn, pastor of Metroplitan United Church (1411 Quadra St, Harris Green).

1927-29: Salesman Parry G. Walker of A.P. Slade, wholesale fruit and produce. The house was vacant during some of the worst years of the Depression, except for:
1931: Jesse Percival Sylvester (1880-1945) and Catherine (née Sangster, 1891-1956) were both born in Victoria. Jesse worked at the Sylvester Feed Co, 709 Yates St and later as a gardener. Catherine was the daughter of George and Genevieve Sangster of 161 South Turner St, James Bay. The Sylvesters moved to 116 South Turner St in 1932, and Catherine moved back to her old family home with her sisters in 1949.

1935: Ernest H. and Dora Davy; Ernest was an engineer with the E&N Railway. 1936: John Prisk and Elizabeth (née Dingle, 1887-1966) left Cornwall, ENG, in 1913 and reached Victoria in 1917. John worked in real estate with P.R. Brown & Sons.

Owners: 1936-65: Tong Lung Yen (1893-1956) and his wife Susanna Tong> (1904-91) bought the house in 1936 and lived here until Tong’s death. He came to Victoria from Canton, China, in 1913, and married Victoria-born teacher Susanna Chan in 1925. The Tongs were proprietors of a fruit and vegetable store at 735, then 753, Fort St from 1924, and managed the Capital Greenhouses at 350 St. Charles St. Tong was an executive member of the Chinese Benevolent Association, a supporter of the Chinese National Republic, and an elder of the Chinese United Church. Daughter Marion (1925- 2005) married Harvey Lim in 1945; they bought a farm on Blenkinsop Rd, then rented another on West Saanich Rd, and started the Big Barn and Red Barn Markets.

1955-77: Leopold Geisinger (1913-1976) and Anna (née Kanitzer, 1910-1974) were tenants, then purchased the house in 1965 from Susanna Tong. The Geisingers emigrated from Austria to Canada in 1954. Leopold was a sheet metal worker at Yarrows.

1977-86: Their son John Geisinger sold the property to movie production manager Randolph and Christine Cheveldave. A brief scene from the movie The Glitter Dome, starring James Garner, was shot in the house in 1984.

1986-2014+: Colin Barr and Jennifer (née Nell) were born in Saskatchewan and married in Regina in 1971. Jennifer, a heritage consultant, researcher and writer, has worked since 1987 for the Victoria Heritage Foundation (VHF). Now retired, she still does the updates of the This Old House (TOH) books. Colin was a stage and production manager in theatre for many years. From 1986 he worked on The Butchart Gardens fireworks show, retiring in 2010. He is also a VHF volunteer on the TOH books.