Heritage Register
Fairfield

1435 Richardson Street

Built 1921
Heritage-Designated 2002 (including garage)

For: Carolyn Whittington

Designer/Builders: Moore & Whittington

ARCHITECTURE:

The exposed rafter-tails on this 1-storey, side-gabled building, and the triangular roof braces with decorative beam-ends projecting through the bargeboards, identify it as a Craftsman Bungalow. Also typical of the style is the house’s cross-gabled front porch, supported by two sets of tripled square columns at the corners on battered piers. The siding is bevelled except for stucco and half-timbering in the gables. A shallow box bay on the right side has a gabled roof that exactly mimics the main roof and porch gables: bargeboards, knee braces, beam-ends, and all.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Carolyn Elizabeth was the wife of Ernest Whittington (1433 Vining St, Fernwood), partner of William Moore (1437 Vining St, Fernwood). Moore & Whittington were a prominent firm of Victoria contractors and lumber merchants for many decades.

First to occupy the house were newly-weds Margaret Jane (Ingram) and Benjamin Grossman, a motorcar salesman for Jameson & Willis. Newly-weds Marshall Aubrey and Doris Harriett (Kenning) Kent moved in in 1923. Aubrey, who worked in Kent’s Phono Store, was the son of Charles and Georgina (Waitt) Kent (228 Douglas St, James Bay). Aubrey’s grandfather established M.W. Waitt & Co in 1876. By 1926 Edward Beverley Prowd, an assistant forester for the BC Government, was living here.
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OTHER OCCUPANTS:

In October, 1928, more newly-weds moved in. Ernest Ronald was the only son of Carolyn and Ernest Whittington, and Muriel Alexandra, the only daughter of Herbert Thomas and Charity Jane Knott. H.T. Knott (1466 Gladstone Av, Fernwood) was another well-known Victoria contractor and lumber merchant. Muriel’s bridesmaid and flower-girl were her cousins, Eleanor and Helen Parfitt (1460 Gladstone Av), from a third family of major contractors, the Parfitts. Muriel was a teacher at North Ward School until her marriage, but at that time female teachers were forced to resign when they got married.

Ronald Whittington was born in Victoria in 1900 and started at the bottom of the rung in the family business, stacking lumber and driving trucks. By the 1930s he was on the Board of Directors. His father Ernest died in 1942 at 72, and Ronald rose to own the company. He died in 1974 at the family’s summer home in Sidney.

In 1931 Ronald and Muriel moved to 53 Linden Av (Fairfield) designed by Ralph Berrill. Harold Sanford and Muriel Rourke then lived in 1435 Richardson for almost four decades. Harold was born in Winnipeg c.1889 and served overseas in WWI. By 1920 he was a purser on the SS Island Princess with the BC Coast Steamship Service. He became a ticket agent and retired as chief clerk after 43 years service with BCCSS, later the CPR.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fairfield History

• Fairfield Heritage Register



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