Heritage Register
Fairfield

1171 Rockland Avenue
Dundalk

Built 1908
Heritage-Designated 1977

For: Thomas & Annie Jones

Architect: W. Ridgway-Wilson



ARCHITECTURE:

Dundalk is a 2½-storey Queen Anne house, with two gables on two sides of the building in an L-shape, a steeply pitched hip-roofed main block in the angle of the L, and a 3-storey polygonal tower on the outside corner of the main block. It is similar in layout, but on a grander scale, to another Edwardian Queen Anne at 1702 Fernwood Rd (Fernwood), construction of which started a year earlier than this house.

Both houses sit on corner lots and have a corner tower and two flanking gables, they present almost mirror -image asymmetrical façades in Queen Anne fashion when viewed from each street. In decoration, however, this house hews more closely to a restrained version of the older Queen Anne spindle-style than the Fernwood house. The east gable (facing Linden) has a decorative bargeboard. [See 1022-24 McGregor Av, Rockland (1893); 155 Rendall St, James Bay (1889)]. A highly unusual feature for a Queen Anne is the four brackets embedded in the bargeboard. The gable has decorative shingles; the first and second floors are clad in drop siding. An entablature decorated with alternating shallow brackets and arches runs under the eaves and continues across the gable. It is broken by a set of two 1-over-1 double-hung windows with horns that are crowned by a shingled and bracketed hood. A belt course runs under the windows. On the ground floor there is a set of three windows, each 1-over-1 and double-hung with an entablature.

A shed-roofed dormer sits on the south face of the main roof, and a flat-roofed dormer crowned by a sunburst pattern on the north one. A single-storey wraparound porch anchors the base of the tower with spindled supports and a pedimented gable with a lattice decoration over the entrance beside the north gable, extending between the two gables. There is a 2-storey stained-glass window on the south wall, and two corbelled chimneys. The tower is clad in drop siding, except for a belt of panelling with a lattice design at the base of the third floor, and has a conical roof set on brackets. The façade of the tower facing the street is flattened by two of its six sides being narrower than the others.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Successful dentist Dr. Thomas Joseph Jones (1844-1924) moved into this house with his second wife, Annie Webster (c.1845-1933), whom he married in Vancouver in 1909. Dr. Jones lived with his first wife, Susanna at Trebatha (1124 Fort St, Fernwood) until she died in 1908. He and Annie spent the rest of their lives at this house.

Dr. Jones was born in Toronto, ON, where he practised before coming to BC. In 1864 he married Susanna George. Their son Thomas Henry “Harry” (1865-1925) was born in Bowmanville, ON, and also became a dentist. The family came to BC in 1884 and by 1890 Thomas had the largest practice in Victoria. He was the first president of the BC Dental Association.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Harry married Amanda Engvick (c.1871-1963), who was born in Tromso, Norway and came to Victoria in 1890. He was living with her and her brother Alvin on View St in 1901. By 1911, Harry was living with his father and step-mother in this house, and census records indicate he was divorced, although no other records could be found to support this. When his father died in 1924, he was living on View St once again, and took over his father’s practice, although he died a short while later.

For about seven years after Annie Jones died, this house was rented to various widows, but ownership remained in the family. By 1943, Amanda Jones had moved back in and converted it into a rooming house. She lived here until her death.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fairfield History

• Fairfield Heritage Register



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