ARCHITECTURE:
This is a two-storey, shallow hip-roofed British Arts & Crafts Tudor Revival house. It was originally a modest, two-storey, deeper hip-roofed Georgian home with a lower side-gabled addition on the left and outbuildings beyond. Ridgway-Wilson modified the roofline on the main building and enlarged the gabled section to two storeys with a shallow hipped roof on a lower plane. There are gabled dormers on the roof, added since 1977, and many modillions under the wide eaves. The garden façade at the rear of the original main building has two angled bays under the eaves, above the roof of the verandah. The verandah, now enclosed, has Tudor and trefoil arches supported on square, chamfered posts, and now a small, enclosed, centrally located entry porch. Ridgway-Wilson’s alteration on the right copies that of the main structure, with an unusual denticulated belt course separating the roughcast stuccoed and half-timbered upper level from the shingled lower level. The high belt course is an Edwardian feature. There is an enclosed entry porch on the Rockland side. The house sits on a ridge with spectacular views over Fairfield, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Peninsula. This large house has always been prominent in Rockland, clearly identified on early maps. It is the oldest of a group, including 1365, 1373 & 1377 Rockland Av, originally part of Stonyhurst (Stoneyhurst) Park, which were all numbered 1365 until 1956.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1884-1905: Rout Harvey (b. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, ENG 1827-1905) married Susan Jane (née Oliver, b. Bury St. Edmunds 1822-1903) in 1853 and arrived in Victoria in 1861 with five sons and a daughter Annie who was born on the journey around Cape Horn. They lived first on Birdcage Walk, then Quadra St. After unsuccessfully operating an importing firm with his brother William, Rout joined Turner, Beeton & Co as a clerk, eventually becoming manager.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1907-09: Capt. Robert Valentine Harvey [no relation] (b. Liverpool, ENG 1876-1915) moved his private Queen’s School from Vancouver to this house calling it Stonyhurst University School. In 1908 the school amalgamated with what is now St. Michael’s University School on RichmondAv, Saanich. Capt. Harvey enlisted in Valcartier, QC in 1914; he died of wounds in May 1915 in a German POW Camp in Hofgeismar and was buried in Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel, Germany.
1910-11: Charles Spratt (548 Lotbiniere).
1912-15: Harry Percy Simpson (b. Plymouth, ENG 1871-1957) commissioned W. Ridgway-Wilson to completely remodel the simple structure into a “modern” Arts & Crafts mansion with Tudor details. Harry farmed in MB for eight years, married Violet Alice DeKerison (née St. Martin, b. Madras, India 1871-1949) in 1898, and joined financial firm of Dixie Ross & Co in 1899. When his partnership with Ross dissolved in 1906, they came here and he engaged in shipbuilding, exploration and real estate. He retired in 1944 as managing director of Producers Sand & Gravel Co.
1921-30: Dr. Forrest Bertram Leeder (b. Swansea, WAL 1865-1945) and Edith Mary (née Hope b. ENG 1872-1956). He visited here, returned home then brought his family out in 1908 and established his medical practice. Their daughters Ada Hope (m. Norman Yarrow), Edith Mary Faith (m. George Collins Grant) and Dorothy Margaret Carita [Spanish for Charity] (m. Norman Le Fevre Grieve) all attended St. Margaret’s School (est’d 1909 opened 1912) under the governance of founder Margaret Barton. Faith Grant opened her first antique shop at 1162 Fort St in 1929. About 1940 she moved to 1156 Fort St. [The shop is now located at 1968 Oak Bay Av, and owned by her grandchildren].
1933-51: Ernest Auchinleck Robinson (b. Stratford, ON 1859-1944) married Alice Elizabeth (née Bull, b. ON, 1862-1943) in Bruce Co, ON in 1882. They farmed in Hope Bay, ON, moved to BC in 1912 and retired here in 1931. He was a stockbroker. She was a member of Arts & Craft Society Sketch Club. Until 1951, daughter Jane Robinson (b. IRL 1885-1971) lived here with her sister Anna “Elizabeth” Featherstone (b. Cutar, Co Down, IRL 1883-1950), widow of Capt. Richard Benjamin Featherstone (b. Anerley, Surrey, ENG 1881-1914). They married in Barnstable, Dev, ENG in 1909. A career British army man, he was KIA in WWI on 18 Dec 1914 near Neuve Chappelle, FRA.
1953-76: Ida Winnifred Lugrin-Fahey (née Lugrin, Fredericton, NB 1884-1966), daughter of first reeve of Esquimalt, came here in 1900. She studied music and taught at Victoria Academy of Music during WWI. She had a singing career (1912-1933) almost exclusively in Canada, including Massey Hall, Toronto, with appearances at Carnegie Hall, NY. She performed many times at Duet Club of Hamilton, ON, now the oldest women’s musical club in Canada (founded 1869). She composed lyrics, music and did orchestrations for many light operas, including The Bride Ship, The Spirit of the Nile, Paris Rendezvous, and Her Ladyship – all produced in Victoria. She returned to Victoria after 20 years living in ON and was soon associated with Victoria Symphony Society, Victoria Musical Art Society and Victoria Theatre Guild. Madame, as she liked to be called, married jewellery manufacturer Henry John MacDonald Fahey (b. Toronto, ON 1875-1947) in 1908. They lived on Cadboro Bay Rd when he died. Daughter Nora Winnifred (b. York, ON 1909-2001) married journalist Llewellyn Trueman Kellie, (b. Duluth, MN 1894-1973) in 1937 in Toronto. They lived in New York during the 1940s, moved here in 1951 and lived in the house until 1966. Son William Lugrin Fahey (b. Toronto 1912-1989), a salesman with Wilson Motors, and wife Frances Adele (nee Hunter b. SK, 1916-1987) lived in the house until 1976.