Heritage Register
Fairfield

940 Heywood Avenue

Built 1916
Heritage-Designated 2002, includes garage

For: Harry & Jane Woolison

Builders: attributed to Luney Bros.

ARCHITECTURE:

The simple 2-storey frame, bellcast hipped roof, and entrance door set slightly off-centre identify this vernacular house as a Prairie Box or Edwardian Four-Square with Arts & Crafts Tudor Revival detailing. An inset first-floor entry porch and second-floor balcony above with slightly chamfered square columns occupy the right half of the front façade, balanced by a first-storey jettied octagonal bay with a shallow piano window at the top and hipped roof on the left. On the right side are two 2-storey jettied box bay windows, and a third is to the right of the rear side. All bays are slightly battered with brackets underneath, while under the eaves are paired wedge-shaped modillions. An eyebrow dormer decorates the front of the bellcast roof. The lower storey is shingled and the upper one stuccoed and half-timbered. The tiny garage at the front of the property mimics the bellcast hipped roof, stucco and half-timbering, and shingles of the house. The shed-roofed addition at the back of the garage was constructed when cars got longer and required more room. Luney Bros plumbed the house and were therefore likely the builders.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Henry Thompson (c.1828-1899) was a carpenter and built a house on this property in 1888. The Woolison family bought the house in 1906, and in 1916 had a new house built behind the old one. Demolition of the 1888 house left a generous front yard.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Major Harry Howlett Woolison (1870-1936) and his wife Jane (Langley, 1870-1949), born in Warwick and Birkenhead respectively, emigrated from England in 1898, and by 1901 were living on Saanich Rd. Harry was a clerk in a gentlemen’s furnishings and clothing shop, and later a partner in John Leander Beckwith & Co (1423 Fernwood Rd), manufacturers, importers, real estate, and insurance agents. For 20 years Harry was the Canadian representative for a number of British pottery and china companies. He was also a Boy Scout leader.

Jane remained in the house after Harry died. The Woolisons had one daughter and four sons.

The house remained in the Woolison family until 2000, when it was purchased by their next-door neighbour, Graham Garman (936 Heywood Av). Graham had it designated heritage, then spent six years restoring the house and garage with funding assistance from the Victoria Heritage Foundation. He also updated the kitchen and put a suite in the basement, making the property more economically viable.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Statement of Significance (Canadian Register of Historic Places)

• Map of Victoria's Heritage Register Properties

• Fairfield History

• Fairfield Heritage Register



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