ARCHITECTURE:
This 1½-storey Edwardian front-gabled house has a full-width verandah with front entrance on the right, balanced by an angled bay on the left, with chamfered posts and moulded capitals. It has shingle cladding, including the verandah balustrade, and half-timbered detail in the gable, with a dentil course dividing the gable from the wall below. A smaller gable in the porch roof emphasizes the entrance. Square moulded pendants on the gables survive but the finials are missing. Double-hung sashes are 1-over-1, with art glass in the transom in the bay, a piano window on the left side and a pair of sashes to the right of the original panelled door, which has a plain light. On the left side is a cantilevered box bay as well as a wide shed dormer. There is a small open porch on the right. The brick chimney has a corbelled cap.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Laurence Oliphant McCarter (1888-1956) and Robert C. McCarter, of McCarter Bros, built several houses in the area. They were the sons of long-time builder William Young McCarter (1852-1935) and Matilda McDonald (1852-1935), who died in a car accident.
The first residents of this house were Robert (c.1845-1917) and Anna Brandon Carter. Robert, who lived in Victoria for 38 years, was a railway worker and a member of the Ancient Order of Foresters. Anna continued to live in this house after Robert’s death until c.1930.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Stanley (1895-1961) and Hilda Muriel Darvill (Knapp, 1898-1953) Bennett lived here from 1931 until the mid-1930s. Stanley was a CPR telegraph operator. The Bennetts were born in England and came to BC in the mid-1920s.
Following a brief vacancy, Samuel Lindsay (1885-1964) and Margaret Florence (Sykes, 1889-1962) McCracken lived here from 1939 until the late 1940s. Samuel owned and operated the BC Leather Co during that period. Margaret was born in Ontario and Samuel was born in Balloch, Scotland. He came to Canada c.1911 and they came to Victoria in the mid-1930s.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee
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