202 Raynor Avenue

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a 1½-storey shingled Queen Anne style house with a hipped main roof, and gables on all sides. The gables at the front and left sides have square bays above bracketed angled bays separated by seven courses of plain shingles painted to give the appearance of a beltcourse. There are squared Palladian windows in the upper bays and Queen Anne glass in all the bays. The right gable is a through-the-roof wall dormer. There is a small blind dormer on the back of the left gable. At the rear, the long gable, the upper balcony and the small corner porch below are all additions. There is a small balcony on the right of the front gable above the front porch. The porch has square posts with brackets and a balustrade. The January 1, 1895 Colonist lists this house at Alston and Jessie as a two-storey frame house for $1,500.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1894-1912: Robert Joseph Nott (b. Toronto, ON, 1849-1921) and Jane Hester (née Draper, b. Sutton, ON, 1867-1952) came to Victoria c.1892-93 via Manitoba. Their offspring: Steamfitter George later lived in the US; Emma; mechanic John Commodore; Madge Ann; Robert J. moved to Port Townsend, WA. Robert was a contract plumber. In 1910 the Notts moved to Saanich and an Italian mason built them a stone mansion. Jane died at the Glenshiel residential hotel at 606 Douglas St, James Bay.

OTHER OCCUPANTS

1913-15: Mount Royal Milling & Manufacturing Co clerk John R. Park.
1917-18: Silver Spring Brewery blacksmith and teamster Henry Denning and Agnes Johnston Smith married in Victoria in 1901.
1920: City fireman, electrician, secretary and government liquor vendor Richard Albert Pynn and Mabel Alice Murrant married in Victoria in 1904. Living with them were their offspring, John Henry Frederick, a cooper, and Vera Leita.
1921-24: Aristide Ercole Marmo (1887-1963) and Marina Teresa (née Barbero, 1892-1962). Born in Canelli, Italy, they came to Victoria in 1907 and 1912. Aristide worked for many years at Sweeney Cooperage Co, then Canada West Cooperage, which supplied barrels for breweries. Their daughter Ida Christina worked for New Method Laundry. Marina and Aristide resided in Vic West until their deaths.
1925-53: James Henry Dickson (b. Thorold, ON, 1863-1937) and Hannah Jessie (née McDonald, b. Kincardine, ON, 1875-1980). James was a widower when they married in Victoria in 1903. He had a cabinetmaker’s shop at 941 Esquimalt Rd. Their offspring: stenographer Ruth Caroline, William “Gordon”, who worked at McRae Meldram Motors in 1929, and Donald.