ARCHITECTURE:
This two-storey house has several Rattenbury traits: the imposing height, the multiple hipped rooflines, wide eaves, and shingled walls below half-timbering and roughcast stucco. A prominent belt course separates the two floors. The garden façade on the left side has a flat-roofed dormer between two full-height box bays; the garden entrance between the lower bays has a flared, hipped roof. In 1955 a second floor addition was added on the rear. The small door on the right side has always been the main entrance. The street façade has a wide box bay above a narrower box bay. Small, shingled hoods shade the lower windows, many of which have horns and leaded transoms. The foundation is of stone, and the two chimneys are corbelled. Subdivision of the property has hemmed in the house.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1907-33: James Ogden Grahame (b. HBC post Fort Vancouver, WA, USA 1851-1944) married Nora Goodchild (née Sadleir, b. Hamilton, ON 1863-1933), in Wentworth, Hamilton in 1883 and came to BC soon after. The Grahames lived in this house until Nora’s death in 1933. James was living in Glenshiel Hotel (606 Douglas St) when he died.
He was the son of Susannah Birnie (1828-1854) and James Allan Grahame, HBC Chief Factor 1853-60 when USA gained control. James Sr. later married Mary Work. In 1874 James Sr was HBC Chief Commissioner, and James Jr was his secretary. James Jr was an HBC manager when he retired.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
The house was vacant in the late 1930s.
1940-52: Harry William Walker (1867-1954) and Emma Florence (née Cole, 1862-1947) were born in London, ENG. Harry came to Victoria in 1889 and Emma in 1891, the year they married. Harry retired in 1947 after 30 years as a grocer.
1953-82: Hon Justice Montague “Monty” Lawrence Tyrwhitt-Drake, KC (b. Victoria 1922-2015) and Nancy Elizabeth (née Lang, b. Toronto 1922-2017). During WWII Capt. Drake of Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) landed on Sword Beach on D-Day and was convalescing in Belgium in 1945 when he met Nancy,a Red Cross ambulance driver. They married in Toronto in 1946. They commissioned an addition to this house in 1955 by Wade Stockdill & Armour to include a second floor at the rear above the kitchen and the cook’s quarters. The grandson of Judge Montague William and Joanna Tyrwhitt-Drake, he retired in 1997 as one of the longest serving Supreme Court Justices in BC. They were founding members of the Jane Austen Society of North America.