ARCHITECTURE:
Edwards built this modest, front-gabled, 1½ storey Arts & Crafts Cottage at the same time as its neighbour at 246 Howe and it is therefore possibly also designed by architect C. Elwood Watkins. The exterior of 246 has been significantly altered but the side dormers remain similar. 250 Howe has retained most of its Arts & Crafts details such as the medium-pitched roof with broad, open eaves, exposed rafters and decorative purlins in the gable ends. There is a prominent brick chimney on one side and a single, shed-roofed dormer with a pair of multi-paned windows on the other. The façade is clad in drop siding with corner boards on the main floor, shingles on the basement and gables. Most windows are double-hung, multi-paned-over-1. Crown mouldings top both the window and door casings. Side facing stairs with a shingled balustrade lead to the central front door, originally recessed in a small porch. The south side has a stairway leading to a small porch near the back. Later additions include the c.1971 deck with carport below, entered via sliding doors from the house.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Little information was found on A. Edwards. The first known occupants were Reginald Haywood and Anna Florence (Boyd, then Coulter) Puxley, who lived here in 1914. Reginald was born in Tunbridge Wells, England, and was a superintendent with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Anna was born in Quebec, and was divorced when she married Reginald in Vancouver in 1912.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
A number of families occupied this house during the next 15 years. Post office clerk David Y. Thomson lived here in 1917, followed by Percival Jones in 1921. Mrs. Bessie Watson resided here in 1926 and salesman John J. Quinn was here in 1929.
The first long-term residents of the house were Laurance (1879-1931) and Ada (Griffiths, 1883-1986) Gardom, who were living here by 1930. Born in Cornwall, England, Laurance came to BC sometime after 1911. In 1924 he married Ada, a native of Yorkshire, England. Laurance was a merchant, but no further details are known. He lived here for less than two years before his death. Ada stayed here until 1940.
Viola (Moxley, 1888-1952) and Alfred Edward Partridge (1880-1969) bought this house in 1937. Natives of Ontario, the Partridges lived in Prince Albert, SK, before they came to BC and moved into the house. Alfred was a plumber and retired in 1950. He left the house shortly after Viola died in 1952. Their daughter Isabel and her husband Eric Colmer then lived in the house from 1954-64, when they sold the house to the Roberts family.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee
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