ARCHITECTURE:
Ellesmere is a rare example in Victoria of the American Stick Style, with its vertical, horizontal and patterned stickwork over drop-siding. There is also Tudor Revival-style roughcast stucco and assorted half-timbering patterns in the gables. This two-storey building, which backs onto Rockland Av, has two deep, hip-roofed wings on this façade. The entrance façade to the right is an anomaly: parged to imitate stone, this two-storey extension with its Tudor-arched entry porch is original to the house. This block has crenellations, a parapeted gable, an angled oriel window, moulded corner buttress, and narrow, slit-like sash windows. The garden façade opposite Rockland has two steeply-gabled, shallow extensions separated by an upper floor balcony over a lower angled bay; this bay was added after 1962, replacing a conservatory. An original single-storey bay is to the left of the angled bay. Many of the main floor windows are banks of long, vertical windows beneath small, square, stained-glass windows; c.2004 similar windows replaced the 1962 picture window. Ellesmere was assessed at $10,000 in 1890.
Tiarks was working in Trimen’s office in 1889; the Angus daughters only remembered the young, handsome Tiarks, not the older Trimen. The office was also designing the Jacobean-style Ashnola for a Dunsmuir daughter at the same time. There are obvious similarities between the two houses, as well as Tiarks’s 1896 Great Hall at the Keating Farm Estate south of Duncan. Angus family lore states that the design of Ellesmere was based on Tiarks’s father’s rectory in Chislehurst, SE London, ENG.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1889-1962: In the mid-1850s, due to economic depression, James Angus (b. Bathgate, W Lothian, SCT 1833-1903) moved with his family from Scotland to the English Midlands. He married Mary (née Fairweather, b. Saint Petersburg, Russia 1839-1925) in Eccles, Lancs, ENG in 1868. In 1887 they came here. James was a provisions and wine merchant with the firm of Angus & Gordon. [His brother, Richard Bladworth Angus (b. Midlothian, SCT 1831-1922) was a member of the syndicate that built the CPR. Members of Mary’s family had worked for the Tsar’s family.] They rented 512 Simcoe St while this house was being built.
In 1892, daughter Mary Isabella “Bella” (b. Eccles, Lancs, ENG 1869-1965) married Benjamin Tingley “B.T.” Rogers (1865-1918). He came from Montréal and established BC Sugar Refining Co (Rogers Sugar) in Vancouver in 1890 with capital from R.B. Angus (above). Bella founded Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1930, remained one of VSO’s main financial supporters and retired as life president in 1960. She was initiator of Vancouver Women’s Musical Club, and a founding member of Vancouver Art Gallery. In 1946 she was awarded the MBE for her dedication to cultural life.
Daughters Lucy (b. Barton, Lancs, 1871-1948) who loved and cared for the garden, Amy (b. Eccles 1874-1943), and son James Alexander “Sasha” (b. Eccles 1873-1952) lived at Ellesmere after their mother died, both women until their deaths. Sasha, employed by BC Sugar for many years, lived in the house until the early 1930s and died in Duncan. Son Col. Richard “Dick” Angus (b. Eccles 1874-1950), Amy’s twin, lived at home until marrying Elizabeth Heaney (b. IRL 1884-1967) in 1912. She came with her family in 1892. Dick was founder of the wholesale automobile equipment firm, R. Angus Co. He served in 5th Regiment, RCA, and was a member of Oak Bay council for 17 years until 1946. They moved back to the house in 1948 where Elizabeth remained until 1962. [James Angus’s nephew David “James” Angus lived in 1617 Rockland Av 1917-48.]
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1962-2002: Chief Petty Officer Gordon “Gordie” Frederick Hall, CD, RCN (b. Stratford, ON 1925-2015) and Kathleen “Kay” Agnes (née Walshe, b. Saskatoon, SK 1923-2016) married in 1946. He joined the navy in WWII and went to Korea in HMCS Crusader. After leaving the navy, he taught in Victoria schools from 1964-84 before retiring to his farm in Duncan. Kay earned her Bachelor of Social Work from UVic in 1979.
2003-06: Jim Britten and Mike Browne reconfigured the kitchen and replaced the picture window with windows replicating those on the rest of the main floor. They then moved to 1372 Craigdarroch Rd.