Heritage Register
Fairfield

245 Linden Avenue

Built 1912-13
Heritage-Registered

For: Henry Trueman

Designer: J. Lennox Wilson
Contactor: Henry Trueman

ARCHITECTURE:

This front-gabled Craftsman or California Bungalow has wide bracketed eaves and a low pitched roof. The walls are shingled in a double course pattern, and there are exposed rafter tails, notched bargeboards and blind trellis pattern in the gables. The front corner wrap-around porch has a gabled roof with tall river rock tapering pier supports. The porch was open, now glazed. Front facing steps lead to a door with panels of bevelled lights set into a cut corner and around the corner to a matching pair of french doors. All have wide triple-strap hinges and matching latch handles. Windows are casements with multi-panes above large single panes.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Contractor Henry James Trueman (1885-1960) built this house and apparently sold it the following year. He came to BC from England with his wife Doris Marguerite (Griffiths, 1897-1970) in 1904. Henry was a carpenter and joiner for 50 years.

The first known occupant in 1914 was Frederick Charles Pauline (1891-1948), son of Charlotte Mary Mesher and Frederick Arthur Pauline, a drygoods merchant who served as Liberal MLA for Saanich. The Pauline family lived at Oak Bay House (the Tod home) in Oak Bay in the 1890s. Frederick Charles was co-owner of Moore & Pauline auto garage. He served overseas during WWI with the British Mechanical Transport from Victoria. In 1913 he married Amie Mona Flint, but they later divorced. In 1925 in Vancouver he married Marguerite “Rita” Florence Marwood, a registered nurse born in Enderby, BC. According to their marriage notice, the couple was to take up residence in London, England, but they were living in Vancouver at the time of Frederick’s death. He had been working for the Dominion Government as a hostel manager for four years up to the time of his death.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

The Mynott family lived here during the 1920s. Born in London, England, Charles Mynott (1883-1971) was a waiter at the Empress Hotel. In 1910 he married May Russell (1881-1969), newly arrived in Victoria from England.

Rachel and James Caldwell, a carpet layer at Spencers, lived here in the early 1930s, followed by Tolmie J. and Joyce W. Wachter in 1937. Tolmie was a cigar and tobacco merchant.

Samuel James (1882-1963) and Mary Loretto (Neville, 1889-1962) Shanks lived here c.1939-49. Samuel was born in Victoria and Mary in Ottawa, ON. Mary came to Victoria in 1907 and married James in 1912. She owned Loretto Lingerie Shop at 763 Fort St for 25 years. James was manager of Wholesale Commission Co at the time, and later a bookkeeper. He was a member of the JBAA.

By 1951 Kenneth J. and Dorothy M. Lloyd were the occupants. They lived here until at least the 1960s. Kenneth worked for BC Forest Products.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fairfield History

• Fairfield Heritage Register



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