Heritage Register
Fairfield

252 Memorial Crescent
(ex-5 Lovers' Lane, 1670 Dallas Rd)

Built 1892
Heritage-Designated 1978

For: Burrell Baukins

Architect: Burrell Baukins

ARCHITECTURE:

This is perhaps the most ornate of the cluster, built by Burrell Baukins for himself and his family. Compared with the matching house that he built at the bottom of the street (204 Memorial Cr), this house was better finished, with two fireplaces, and better woodwork. This, and 204 & 228 appear to be unique in the city for having corner-boards and window trim covered in fancy shingles. The exterior detailing is formed from Victorian stock mouldings, used in imaginative designs.

Like 204 Memorial Cr (but unlike the middle pair of Italianates in the group), this has two gables over an L-shaped footprint, enfolding a hip-roofed porch with a novel projecting entry assembly. Here, there are chamfered columns, pierced brackets, and diamond-shaped blocks for decoration, while triangular blocks are applied to the gables. Fish-scale shingles are present in the flared belt course and as trim round the windows. The chimney has ornate corbelling.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Carpenter Baukins lived very briefly at 252, but by 1895 the family had left Victoria. In 1893 W.J. Dwyer began paying taxes on the property, and took out a water permit for the house in 1894. The Yorkshire Guarantee & Security Corp owned the house from 1898-1906, during which time it was apparently vacant.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

In 1907 Edward Ernest Wootton (1865-1944) began paying taxes on the property. He likely bought the house for his widowed sister-in-law and her children to live in. Agnes Jackson Campbell (Smith, then Wootton, c.1866-?) was living here c.1909-16. Born in Quebec, Agnes came to Victoria with her parents and siblings in the late 1870s. Agnes married Edward’s brother Henry Homewood Wootton (c.1864-1890) in 1885, and they had two daughters. Her sister Frances Amelia Smith (1871-1947) married Henry’s brother Edward Ernest Wootton in 1893. They were the sons of pioneer master mariner Captain Henry Wootton and Eliza Yardley, who came to Victoria on the Labouchere in 1859. Capt Henry was postmaster and harbor master in Victoria in the 1860s. The family home was on Broughton St near Quadra, and was demolished in 1952. Daughter Annie Sansbury King (1861-1943) lived at 1195 Fort St (Rockland) and son Stephen Yardley Wootton lived at 1261-63 Richardson St (Fairfield).

Agnes was widowed in 1890 when Henry died of typhoid fever. She married Robert Campbell (c.1867-1904), and they had five children before he died of tuberculosis. Shortly after, Agnes moved to this house with her seven children, including two daughters from her previous marriage, Eliza Yardley Wootton, and Agnes Homewood Wootton, who married Frederic Herbert Mayhew in 1917. Agnes had moved to 1077 Davie St (Gonzales) with her children by this time.

The house was vacant in 1917, and by 1920 army pensioner Frederick W. Webber was living here. John Frederick (1863-1939) and Louisa (Horrabin, 1876-1936) Gray bought this house c.1924 and lived here until about 1931 (moving to 452 Moss St). John was born in Chesterfield, England, and Louisa in Sheffield. They came to Victoria in 1919. John was a fireman on the Estevan, and was later a janitor until he retired in 1935. Edward Adams (1901-1967), a painter, and his wife Dorothy Lucy (Parker) lived here in the late 1930s.

By 1941 Walter Norman (1895-1975) and Margaret Barbara (Burrell, 1899-1986) Armstrong bought the property and lived here for at least the next 20 years. Born in Sunderland, England, Walter came to Canada in 1910, and moved to Victoria in 1911. During WWI he served with the 10th Battalion, Calgary Regiment, and during WWII he was with the Royal Canadian Artillery. He was an accounts clerk with the federal government. In 1921 he married Margaret Burrell, of Victoria.

In 1982 Stuart Stark, grandson of William and Annie Stark (228 Memorial Cr) received a special Hallmark Society Award for his contribution to heritage preservation in Victoria and for his restoration of 252 Memorial Cr.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fairfield History

• Fairfield Heritage Register



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