ARCHITECTURE:
This large 2-storey Arts & Crafts California Bungalow is very reminiscent of the architecture of Greene & Greene in Pasadena, CA. It features multiple low-pitched gables and wide, extensively-bracketed eaves. The low porch has a porte-cochère to the right with a flat roof forming a balcony above. It rests on decorative brick piers. The timber brackets are stacked and braced. Many beam-ends are rounded instead of the more usual pyramid shape. The brick with every fourth course emphasized is carried through on the entire first floor. The second floor is shingled. The garden façade has a broad brick porch with pergola roof to the right side, an angled bay in the middle with a gabled open porch above and a gabled, full-height extension at the left side. Windows are grouped casements, divided near the top with a horizontal muntin in a cloud lift design made famous by Greene & Greene, and harkening back to the strong Japanese influence on the California Bungalow. Brick chimneys are corbelled and have parged caps.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1912-69: Harriet Elizabeth (Ross, 1876-1969) and Herbert Goulding Wilson (1872-1938) were both descendants of pioneer merchant families. They married in Victoria in 1902. Born in Victoria, Harriet was the daughter of Dixie Harrison Ross, an American who made his fortune goldmining in the Cariboo in the 1870s and opened the Dixie Ross & Co Food Emporium in Victoria. He competed fiercely with other merchants like R.P. Rithet (998 Humboldt St, Fairfield), Wilson Brothers, Robert Ward (1249 Rockland Av) and Simon Leiser (1005 St. Charles St; 522-524 Yates St, Downtown).
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