ARCHITECTURE:
Typical Craftsman Bungalow features of this house include the low-pitched roof with wide eaves supported on knee brackets in the gables, the exposed rafter tails and the tapering square porch posts on top of shingled piers. The building structure is complex. It is a front-gabled house with four diamond-paned casement windows in the gable, and front and right side-gabled extensions. A box bay sits below the gabled front extension. There is a full-length square bay on the left side adjacent to an exterior chimney. The verandah extends to the right of the front bay. It has a panelled Craftsman door with sidelights. The heavy balusters lead to an enclosed shingled stairway balustrade, which has been creatively heightened with matching porch balusters. The entire house is clad in shingles. It was duplexed by 1952.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1912-32: William Henry Benson (b. Guelph, ON, 1880-1952) and Marie/Mary Isabell/Isobel (née Morphy, b. Muskoka, ON, 1885-1960) married in Vancouver in 1910. William came to BC c.1904. A carpenter, building contractor and member of the Carpenters’ Union, he retired in 1948. In the 1920s he was foreman for contractor David W. Burnett.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1933-44: Lt. Cmdr. Charles Henry Brown (b. Limassol, Cyprus, 1886-1977), RCN, and his wife, Alma Gwendoline (née Hale, b. Bristol, ENG, 1897-1977). Charles, a shipwright, retired as a Commander, RCN.
1945-48: Rosella M. Weller (b. Michigan, USA, 1881-1956), the widow of Harry, came to Victoria c.1912.
1949-50: CPO Max Leopold Bernays, RCN, and his wife Mary “Agnes”.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume One: Fernwood & Victoria West
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