955 North Park Street

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a two-storey, front-facing gabled Homestead house with sandwich brackets in the frieze. The front gable is pedimented and has a half-round window on the pent roof of the pediment. There is a wide belt course separating the upper and lower floors at the front. The small offset porch on the lower left also has a pedimented gable with semicircular arches on chamfered square posts, cutout brackets and turned balusters. There is a hip-roofed addition on the rear. Decorative Queen Anne shingles cover the gables and the belt course; the rest of the house is clad in drop siding. When the house was moved in 1981, the original two-over-two sash windows were replaced.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Original owner Thomas Wilson was born in Quebec c.1845 and came to BC in 1864. In 1879 he married Margaret Annie Cleaver (1853-1931), who came to Victoria from Melrose, Scotland in 1877. Thomas was a plumber and worked with brothers Alexander and William, of A&W Wilson. This family business was located on Broad St and offered plumbing, gas fitting and tinsmith services, and sold stoves, ranges and other products. Alexander Wilson (1834-1918) (1701 Quadra St, North Park) came to Victoria from Quebec in 1859 to work as a gold messenger for the Bank of British North America. He returned to Quebec and then came back to Victoria with his two brothers in 1864, and they established A&W Wilson. Alexander married Margaret’s sister, Mary Cleaver (1850-1930) the same year (son Ruther Wilson lived in 1432 Gladstone Av, Fernwood). William (1841-1924) married Elizabeth West (1841-1923) in 1868 at Victoria First United. Thomas died of pneumonia in 1891. Margaret lived here until her death in 1931.

Daughter Madge Mary Cleaver (1880-1974) was born in Victoria and married Henry Martin Sallaway (1882-1964) in Vancouver in 1905. Henry was a chief engineer with the BCCSS who came to Victoria from London, England in 1889 with his family. He was one of the original crew members on the Canadian Pacific Steamship Princess Sophia, but was away on vacation when it sank Oct. 25, 1918 at Vanderbilt Reef in the Lynn Canal near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 278 passengers and 65 crew members. The Sallaways occupied this house until the early 1970s, and then it changed hands amongst several developers, who wished to demolish it. As it was Heritage-Designated by the City of Victoria, demolition was refused, and in 1981 it was moved to its present location on North Park St and converted into the Heritage Cat Clinic.