ARCHITECTURE:
This two-storey Italianate house has a pedimented, front-gabled roof, rather than the more usual hipped roof. A pedimented gabled wing at the rear is narrower, lower and sits within the pedimented gable of the main roof. Sandwich brackets in the eaves across the front are repeated on all exterior corners of the house. The roofline of the two-storied, angled bay on the right front is continuous with the pediment; this roofline runs around the entire house. The bays are separated by a hipped roof with thin paired brackets. The bracketed hipped roof of the entrance porch balances that of the bay. The porch is supported by bracketed and chamfered posts and pilasters. Paired double-hung sash windows on the lower right side of the house have an elaborately-bracketed, hipped hood. All the windows have shaped aprons. A stringcourse in the apex of the front gable divides fishscale and plain shingles from vertical V-joint T&G. The rear gables and area below the water table have vertical V-joint T&G, the body of the house is clad in drop siding and the foundation is concrete.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Owners: 1891-1902: William Prout bought Sub Lots 2 & 3 of Lot Z in 1885. [Lot Z was a long strip comprising 2½ acres along the southern edge of the Legislature property, on the north side of Superior St. It was created in 1874 and purchased by Leopold Lowenberg. Francis Jones Barnard (1462 Rockland Av, Rockland) and James B. Preston bought Sub Lots 2 & 3 from him in 1884, and then sold them to Prout. In 1886 Prout built a house on Sub Lot 2 for $1,000 and he and his family lived there; it appears on the 1887 Fire Insurance Map and later became 57½.
On April 19, 1891, there was a tender call by Prout for two houses on Superior. The VDC on Jan 1, 1892, pg.8 stated: “Prout, Wm – two-storey residence, Superior Street,” although two houses were actually built on Sub Lot 3 and given the addresses 59 for the E one and 59½ for the W house. William (b. ON 1841) was a carpenter. His wife Catherine (b. USA 1840-d. Waltsburg, WA 1901) came to Canada in 1878. They were in Victoria for the 1891 and 1901 censuses, and were still living in 57½ Superior in 1900-01. In 1901 they paid $180/year to a 17-year-old Chinese boy, Wing Lung, as a general servant. William’s nephew Charles Harris, his wife and son were also living with the Prouts that year.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Owners: 1902-05: Retired hotelier George Alfred Richardson Sr (b. ENG 1826-1922) and his wife Mary Anne (b. ENG 1840-1923) lived in 57½ Superior, and acquired Prout’s other houses, 59 and 59½ as rental properties. The Richardsons arrived in Victoria in 1850 aboard the Norman Morison. In 1858 George built Victoria’s first brick hotel, the Victoria, which later became the Windsor Hotel (901-905 Government St, Downtown); he sold the hotel in 1903. Their son George built 1025-1027 Moss St, Rockland, and his daughter Edith married Ainslie Helmcken, who founded the City of Victoria Archives.
1906: Mary “Ella” Macabe (see below) owned the house for just one year at this time.
1907-09: Francis “Frank” LeRoy (b. USA 1869-1940) and Rosa (b. USA 1871); Frank was a driver with the fire department.
1909-10: The BC Government purchased the house and held it until May 1910.
Tenants: 1893: Charles “Charley” B. Lockhart (b. ON 1861) and Agnes “Aggie” (née Henry, b. ON 1867); Charles was a furniture dealer and undertaker. Both born in ON, they later lived at Rossland, BC, and Vancouver before leaving the province.
1894-95: William Stewart (b. SCT 1868) was a merchant tailor who came to Canada in 1890 and lived in Victoria until 1903.
1896-1904: Harold Fleming (b. Twickenham, London, ENG 1865-1934) and Mary Edith (née Mesher, b. Woolwich, ENG 1871-1956) married in Victoria in 1894. Harold and his elder brother Edgar (b. London, ENG 1859-1938) came to Victoria in 1887 and opened a studio, Fleming Bros, Photographers, and also sold Kodaks and photo supplies.
1905: Thomas Cashmore (b. Worcestershire, ENG 1863-1950) and Ada (née Rafferty, b. ENG 1858-1935) came to Victoria c.1890. Thomas was a clerk and later a bookkeeper. After Ada’s death, Thomas remarried in 1939 to widow Alice Charlotte Humphries.
1908-09: Hattie Anna (née Smith, b. San Francisco 1857-1929) Gray, widow of carpenter Edward James Gray (b. ENG 1855-1899). Hattie came to Victoria c.1880. She married widower Charles Frederick Beaven (b. Charlottetown, PEI 1844-1926) in November 1908.
Owners: 1910: Charles and Hattie Beaven then purchased this house at the BC Government public auction on May 26, 1910 on Parliament Square. Fifteen houses were sold in the block on the north side of Superior St by the BC Ministry of Public Works, who were about to extend the rear of the Parliament Buildings. The Beavens moved the house from 548 Superior to 524 Michigan and took out a City of Victoria water permit on August 2.
1911-41: According to tax rolls, Charles’s daughter, Mary “Ella” Macabe (see 222 Dallas), became the owner of this house and 526 Michigan until 1916, when she and her father split the lot. Charles became the owner of 526, now 222 Dallas, and Ella of 524, now 226. Charles Beaven came to Victoria from San Francisco aboard the SS Panama in 1870, and was a widower when he married widow Mary Helen Bowden here in 1877. Mary came to Victoria with her father Joshua Moody in the early 1860s. She died in 1900 at 54. Charles then lived with his daughter Ella and family at 113 Simcoe, later 406 Simcoe. In 1908, Charles married for a third time, to Hattie Gray. Charles was a carriage builder for many years, and later became involved in real estate. He ran unsuccessfully for alderman from 1915 to 1917. Charles was also a charter member of the Sons of England. While the Beavens did not initially live at this house, they did reside here from the early 1920s until they moved into 526 in 1926, the year of Charles death. Hattie moved back to 524, but died on a trip to Seattle in 1929. Ella Macabe continued to own this house unril 1941, but lived in 406 Simcoe until her death in 1944 (see 222 Dallas).
Tenants: 1912: Annie (née Burns, b. Toronto 1865-1922), the widow of Nelson LaCroix, resided here with her son, Ernest LaCroix. Nelson had died of TB in Cobble Hill in 1910 at 45; he had been proprietor of the Cobble Hill Hotel for four years.
1913: Butcher Harold “Harry” C. Butler, an employee of P. Burns & Co. Henry Butler, a clerk with the BCER, and Ernest Hancock Butler (b. Barnstable, Devon, ENG 1889-1950), a bookkeeper with W.J. Pendray & Sons, are listed as boarding house residents in the house. In February 1913, Ernest married Elsie Annie Edna Gibson (b. Wellingborough, ENG 1891-1957).
1914: Real estate agent Colin Powell (b. ENG c.1879) and Emmie Lilian (née Campbell, b. Didcot, ENG c.1889) married in Victoria in 1911.
1915: Mrs. Margaret Gilchrist. 1918: Mary Jane Cole (née Mavis, b. Durham, ENG 1869-1932), the widow of Harry Thomas Cole (b. Leicestershire, ENG 1862-1911); they married in Victoria in 1891 but the marriage wasn’t registered until 1894. Harry was the proprietor of the Pritchard House Hotel on Yates St.
1920-21: Stone cutter David Thomas (b. Wales 1879-1928) and his wife Sarah (b. Wales c. 1873) came to Canada in 1912. Sarah was the boarding house landlady here; at the time of the 1921 census they had one family of four from ENG and a single woman from SCT.
1923-29: Owner Charles Beaven and his wife Hattie lived here (see above). 1930: Mrs. Catherine Mitchell Moyes (née Young, 1883-1973) and her sons Ebenezer C.G, a fireman with the BCCSS, and George Young Moyes (b.Victoria 1913-1989), an apprentice with Hafer Machine Co who later joined the RCN. Catherine and her husband Ebenezer Campbell Moyes (1878-1962) were born in Fyfeshire, SCT, and came to Canada in 1908. Ebenezer Jr was born in Alberta, but the family came to Victoria shortly afterwards. Ebenezer Sr was a labourer and janitor at the Machinery Depot.
1931: Electrician Marvin Edward Squire (b. Calgary, AB 1905-1983) and Emily May Jean (née Kelly, b. Sydney, AUS 1896-1989); Marvin’s widowed mother Frances and his brother, electrician Aubrey, lived in 526 Michigan. 1936-37: Mrs. Margaret “Ann” Doull (née Campbell, b. Wick, Caithness, SCT 1883-1940), the wife of Robert Doull (b. Wick, Caithness, SCT 1885-1950). The Doulls came to Canada about 1910. [Robert was a merchant in Cypress River, MB, in 1916 when he signed with the CEF to go overseas during WWI. He served in England and France, but after repeated outbreaks of chronic psoriasis, he was invalided back to Canada and discharged in July 1918.] Living in this house with Margaret were her offspring, Robert H.J, a deckhand with BCCSS, and Vivian Jessie, a waitress and clerk at Metropolitan Stores. In 1937 Vivian married George Douglas Ball (b. Victoria 1911-1995) a seaman on the SS Princess Marguerite and later a Capt of BC Pilot Boats. [His mother Hannah Parker was born here in 1853 to John and Mary Ann Parker, who had just arrived from Kent, ENG, on the third voyage of the Norman Morison (1192 Fort St, Fernwood). Hannah was married when she was not quite 15 to Charles Ball, who was 20 years her senior.]
1938-40: John Leith Riddler (1875-1960) and Agnes (née Spowart, 1878-1961) were born in Scotland, came to Canada c.1910, and to Victoria before WWI; John was a gardener at the Empress Hotel. They lived at 309 Simcoe St, James Bay, from 1942 until their deaths with two of their married daughters.
Owners:1941-48: Frederick and Mabel Banks operated a rooming house here in addition to 526 Michigan (see 222 Dallas Rd).
1949-51: Mrs. Victoria M. Forrest, a saleswoman at HBC.
1952: Mrs. Martha Jacquot.
1953: The house was turned into four apartments. A number of married couples then rented the suites; many of the men were with the Canadian Army, the RCN or the RCAF, or the Canadian Government.
1953-54: Charles Cecil Everstan (b. ENG 1891-1980), a fireman for the Canadian Government, and his wife Ethel May (née Deeprose, b. Sussex, ENG 1899-1987)
1954-55: Retired carpenter Herbert Edwin Johnston (1880-1955) died in the house in June 1955. His wife Grace Mildred (née Bradley, 1898-1955) died in the Royal Jubilee Hospital two months later. Both were born in Ontario, but were living in Los Angeles and Invermay, SK, respectively, when they married in Vancouver in 1923. They came to Victoria in 1949.
Owners: 2014-16: The five houses still remaining on what is now called Capital Park, a major part of the block south of the Legislative Building, were sold by the provincial government to Jawl Precinct Lands Corp & South Block (Concert) Ltd for redevelopment. The developers moved the houses off the property, the three on Superior to 580, 584 and 588 Michigan St, and the two on Michigan to Dallas Rd. The Dallas Rd houses were then resold to another developer, to be rehabilitated as single family dwellings.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Two: James Bay
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