ARCHITECTURE:
Samuel Maclure’s plans for this house show a 1½-storey “Maclure bungalow” with a steep bellcast hipped roof, at least three shed dormers, and two porches, quite similar to 1502 Regents Pl (Rockland), built two years later. Today the house looks more like 1000 Terrace Av (Rockland) (started two years earlier), a British Arts & Crafts creation that was a larger expansion of his bungalow design, or 1005 St. Charles St (Rockland), his vaguely Prairie School design started a year earlier and obviously intended for a large family. Additions to the original building, although faithful in detail to the board-and-batten cladding and numerous ribbons of leaded glass windows, have swamped the scale of the original. It has been transformed into a largely two-storey building with a ridged hipped roof, five dormers, and a wraparound second-storey sun porch on the south end.
At one time this house sat on an estate of 16 acres. This is one of Maclure’s more unique designs not restricted by any of the most popular styles of the era but encompassing a creative blend as well as the strong influence that Francis Rattenbury had on him at that time. Maclure incorporated the granite foundation and extensive use of timber of the Tudor Revival style which he popularized in Victoria. It is believed that the cedar used on both the interor and exterior of the house was cut and milled from trees on the estate. Maclure borrowed and adapted such features as second storey porches which became one of his hallmarks from the Chalet style and the expansive dormer hipped roofs from the Georgian Revival style.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
This house was built for Harry T. Shaw, a salesman who lived here until 1921 or 1922.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Herbert Renwick (1887-1930) and Audrey Mary (Lemon, 1890-1968) Hammond lived here with their children from 1923-25. Herbert was born in Toronto and Audrey was born in Winnipeg. Audrey married Herbert in Winnipeg in 1910 and they came to BC in 1913. His death registration indicates he was a farmer. He died of heat stroke at Seton Lake near Lillooet in 1930 and was buried at the cemetery at St. Mary’s Church in Metchosin, BC.
Retired couple Bernard William (1875-1957) and Margaret Olive (1884-1963) Paul lived here from 1928-53. Bernard was born in Ipswich, England, and Margaret in Cheltenham, England. He came to Canada c.1910 and took up cattle ranching for about five years. The Pauls came to Victoria in 1927.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee
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