ARCHITECTURE:
This is a steeply-hipped, bellcast-roofed British Arts & Crafts house with many gables. The front façade has a gabled dormer between two two-storey bays. The left front angled bay has an unusual wide, enclosed, oval-arched bargeboard, which is repeated on the right side and the rear on two-storey bays. The right front box bay is half-timbered as is the left, both of which sit on high stone foundations; the windows sitting on those foundations have concrete sills. The main entry between the two bays is a deep octagonal porch below a once-open balcony. The porch has posts with long British A&C brackets and is now partially enclosed. The balcony, porch and front step balustrades are all clad in double-coursed shingles, as is the body of the house. On the left side there are two gabled dormers and a shallow, cantilevered box bay below a pent roof on the main floor. The dormers all have pent roofs below the gables. There is a small triangular dormer on the rear. The chimneys have roughcast parging. Front and rear balconies were added on the roof after 1977. When built, the house was valued at $12,000.
The James brothers designed few Victoria residences together, their team being split up by WWI. However, they also designed a residence for contractor John Ernest Shenk (b. Erie, PA, USA 1871-1945) at 512 Selkirk Av [demolished] on the Gorge in 1911.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1912-20: Dr. James Douglas Helmcken (b. Victoria 1858-1919) [whose first wife Mary Jane Halliday died of tuberculosis in 1887 a year after they were married] and Ethel Margaret (née Mouat, b. Victoria 1866-1941) married in 1888; she grew up down the road from him (437 Belleville St). “Dr. Jim” as he was affectionately known, was the eldest son of Hon. Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken and Cecilia Douglas (638 Elliot St), and grandson of Sir James Douglas. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University and received his MD at Bellevue Medical College, New York. He took over his father’s practise here in 1886 specializing in children’s diseases. In 1902 he taught a medical course at St. Joseph’s Hospital before formal medical training schools had been established here. He practised for 34 years and served as president of BC Medical Society. He and Ethel had five children including Ainslie Helmcken (1025-1027 Moss St), who established City of Victoria Archives. Their summer cottage on Beach Dr, Oak Bay became home to the family after Dr. Helmcken died.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1920-27: Thomas Fraser and Evelyn Anne Homer-Dixon came here in 1920 and paid $20,000 for the house. They later lived at 1385 Manor Rd.
1928-30: Maj. (Ret’d) Cedric “Ced” Rupert Hay (b. Melbourne, AUS 1880-1953) and second wife Anna Isabel (née Holmes, b. Kingston, ON 1879-1939). In 1916, he briefly commanded the 2nd Btn Welsh Reg. An Australian Rules football player, he played for Melbourne in 1900.
1931-34: US Consul George Augustus Bucklin, Jr (b.W Hartford, MO, USA 1875-1954) and Emeline Wood (née Porter, b. Peterborough, ON 1876-1961) married in Peterborough in 1904. George acted as US Consul-General in Mexico, France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand.
1937: Paul William Rookes (b. Ingersoll, ON 1880-1943) and Esther Elinor (née Lewis, b. IN, USA 1881-1947) came here from Edmonton. Paul was president of International Importing & Exporting.
1937-65: Contractor John A. Moxam (b. Renfrew, ON 1882-1941) and Blanche Irene (née Boyle, b. Cobden, ON 1883-1965) married in ON in 1906 and came here in 1928.
They subdivided 1015 into the seven-suite Georgian Apts. He built and owned a number of apartment blocks designed by architect Percy Fox, including Harrogate
Apts, Beach Dr, Oak Bay.
In 2008 this house sustained serious fire damage, especially to the roof. Owner Steven Chin won a 2012 Hallmark Heritage Society Award for its rehabilitation.