Heritage Register
Fairfield

1009 Cook Street

Built 1908
Heritage-Designated 1977

For: Sigfried & Ida Hartman

Architect: William D'Oyly Rochfort

ARCHITECTURE:

This house is a Tudor Revival version of British Arts & Crafts. It has a rubble stone lower storey and half-timbered upper storey. The substantial porch on the right is also of stone. Full-height battered stone pillars at each corner support an upper balcony; front-facing concrete steps have stone balustrades. Heavy pairs of lightly chamfered wooden posts and diagonal cross pieces form the upper balustrade. Double entrance doors are panelled below, with A&C bevelled lights and matching side windows. To the left of the porch, is a shingled box bay with four 1-over-1 double-hung sashes each with a bevelled leaded glass panel above. The second storey has groupings of 6-over-1 double-hung sashes. The half-timbering is more elaborate than usual and has quatrafoil panels below the windows. The graceful bellcast hipped roof has a dormer on front. The red brick chimney has handsome corbelling. The garden is contained by a rubble wall with cut granite posts, wrought iron gates and heavy cement caps all around. The house has survived with little alteration.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Dr. Sigfried Moritz Hartman (1858-1923) was a pioneer dentist. Born in Germany, he came to Canada in 1877. Ida Rostein, born in Germany in 1864, came to Canada in 1886. (Ida’s sister Eva married Henry Levy, Victoria restaurateur and property developer, whose son Arthur Levy built 2667 Empire St, Oaklands.) Sigfried and Ida married in Victoria in 1888. In 1901 they lived on Yates with three young children, a young German cousin, and a 21-year old Chinese servant, Wang Ah. The Hartmans’ younger son, Leroy, also became a dentist, and joined his father’s practice. Sigfried died in Seattle in 1923, but his funeral took place from the family residence, and he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Fernwood Rd.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

The house was vacant for some time, but by 1925 was owned by David Robert MacFarlane (1862-1941), chief accountant for the Liquor Control Board. His wife was Esther Isabel (Porter, 1864-1942). By 1933 the MacFarlanes had moved to 1208 Dallas Rd. The next owners were Mary Haslam (McMillan, 1875-1949), widow of Victor George Haslam (1876-1929), then Theo and Jeanetta Taylor, who ran the Estevan Grocery, and Henry and Lillian Hudson c.1938-45. Henry was a porter at Spencers.

About 1940 Arthur Charles (1882-1966) and Rose (Webber, 1888-1965) Bancroft moved to Victoria from Regina, SK, living in Saanich for several years. Charlie, an Englishman, fought in the Boer War and then homesteaded in northern Saskatchewan. However, he ended up in Regina as a home builder, contractor and steam pipefitter. Shortly after the family moved to Victoria, the luxury liner Queen Elizabeth docked in Naden for a quick refit to convert her to a troop ship in 48 hours. Charlie was contracted to work on the ship, and was picked up each morning and returned each evening by limousine. About 1945 the Bancrofts bought 1009 Cook, and by 1949 had subdivided it into three apartments, occupying the main apartment themselves. By then, Charlie was a bricklayer working for the Canadian Government.

Their daughter Doris was born in 1917, studied music at Oxford and had a degree in Psychology from UBC. She was a music teacher and student counsellor, and spent some time teaching in Prince George, Anaheim Lake and Bella Coola, and the Campbell River area. Doris moved back to Victoria when her parents became ill, and continued to live in the house until 2000.

The house was then bought by accountants Bruce Maycock and Ron Hampton, who restored it inside and out as elegant offices. They won a Hallmark Society Award of Merit in 2002 for their restoration.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fairfield History

• Fairfield Heritage Register



• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee