1054 Princess Avenue

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a 1½-storey, bellcast hip-roofed, Colonial Bungalow The façade appears to be symmetrical but for an angled bay on the left balanced by a picture window on the right. There are bellcast, hip-roofed dormers on all sides. Classical features include the paired modillions on the eaves of the dormers and the main roof, and the fluted Doric columns. There is a cantilevered angled bay under the eaves on the left side. The recessed, full-width front verandah has clusters of columns on concrete bases supported on battered, random rock piers. The verandah balustrade is composed of decorative curved balusters of unusual design. The front steps are low and flared and have concrete capped balustrades. The rock of the front foundation, piers and balustrades unifies the front verandah. The panelled front door and sidelights have original art glass. Several windows have etched and bevelled glass with central fleur-de-lys. A recessed rear porch has one chamfered post and a solid balustrade. The body of the house is clad in double-bevelled siding and the basement below the water table is shingled.

William Lindley (b. Lincolnshire, ENG 1857-1921) built this bungalow for $3,500, based on drawings by local architect, L.W. Hargreaves. William was listed at 1050 Princess in 1912, and lived in 1054 briefly in 1917-18. A taxidermist, he came to Victoria in 1886. He was a furrier in partnership with Frederick Foster for a number of years, and eventually formed his own business on Government St, BC Fur Co. He retired from this business c.1913, and began working with the Exhibition Department of the CPR Natural Resources Branch installing natural history exhibits in various cities across Canada. William was a member of the Sons of England. His wife, Margaret (née Anderson, c.1872-1957) was born in Antrim, Ireland. The family lived at 1048 Pandora for many years.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

The earliest recorded resident of this house was Alfred Goodwin (b. ENG 1876-1963) in 1913. Alfred, a naval cook, came to Canada in the early 1900s. In 1919 he married Mary Charlotte (née Hudd, then Gull, b. London, ENG 1876-1939), who came to Victoria in 1912.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Aleck Clark lived here in 1914.

From 1920-35, astronomer William Edmund Harper (b. Bruce Co, ON 1878-1940) and Maude Eugenia (née Hall, 1876-1949) lived here. William graduated from the University of Toronto in 1906 and joined the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa. He was transferred to the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria in 1918, and became its second director in 1936. He was active in the popularization of astronomy, and the University of Toronto granted him an honorary doctorate in 1935. He died at the observatory in 1940.

Olive Jemsen Brown (née Cramp, b. London, ENG 1884-1960), widow of William James Worsfold Brown (1879-1918), lived here in 1939. She came to Canada in 1914. William was a civil servant, and died of a sudden illness in 1918. Olive was the secretary of the St. Barnabas Guild for many years. Widow Margaret Robb (née Cochrane, b. Glasgow, SCT 1887-1969) lived here until 1946. She came to Canada in 1929, and lived in Prince Rupert for a time before coming to Victoria. William C. Falk, a janitor at the Metropolis Hotel, and his wife May, owned this house in 1947.

By 1951 the residents were William Edward Teele (1907-1983), a driver with Bray’s Transfer, and his wife Pearl Elizabeth (Tucker). They later divorced.