Heritage Register
Fernwood

1458 Begbie Street
(ex-388 Pandora/North Pandora Av)

Built 1892
Heritage-Designated 1987

For: Alexander & Annette Ewart

Architect: Alexander Charles Ewart

ARCHITECTURE:

This is one of Victoria’s most unusual Queen Anne houses because of its dramatic roofline. The roofline consists of two steeply cutaway gables which are perpendicular to each other. Under these are two offset gables, the lower of which covers the front porch. The main gables have multi-pane, semi-circular windows and board-and-batten siding. There are sunburst motifs in the two offset gables and also a sunburst above the front left Queen Anne windows. The sunburst was a favourite symbol of the English Aesthetic Movement which created the Queen Anne style. Ewart used this motif on other buildings he designed. The upper floor is covered in decorative bands of shingles and the lower floor in drop siding. In 1992 owner Shelagh Hall won a Hallmark Award for her restoration of the house, which included removal of aluminum windows and restoration of the striking original paint scheme.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
.
1892-97: Alexander Charles Ewart (b. Holland, Grey Co, ON 1854-1916) and Annette Evelyn “Nettie” (née Stout, b. Montezuma, IA, 1859-1928) married in 1881 in Corvallis, OR. They moved to Victoria in 1891 and bought the property from Maj. Charles T. Dupont who lived in Stadacona (see page 20) across the road. Alexander apprenticed as a draughtsman in architect John Teague’s office. [Note: This house for his family was one of A.C. Ewart’s earliest designs. Some of his most important contributions in Victoria include the Pendray House, 309 Belleville St, James Bay, the Leiser building, 522-24 Yates St, Downtown, and the almost identical houses at 522 Quadra St, Fairfield, and 203 Raynor Av, Vic West.] In 1897 the Ewarts moved to Nelson, and from 1898 to 1901 Alexander designed many of that city’s best known buildings with his partner Alexander Carrie. In 1902 the Ewarts returned to Corvallis. A.C. Ewart died in Portland, OR.

.*Research by Carey Pallister for Building the West, 2003.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1900-07: William A. Stevens was a bookkeeper at B. Williams & Co (528 St Charles St, Rockland), then a real estate salesman.

1908-27: The Rev. Joseph McCoy (b. Hamilton, ON, 1848-1927) and Mary Helena (née Huckins, b. Toronto, ON, 1859-1927). Rev. McCoy graduated from Toronto University and Knox Theological College, was ordained in 1879, and married Mary in April. He came to BC with the Home Mission Board in 1898. His charge was along the construction line of the Columbia & Western Railway in the West Kootenays. In 1903 the McCoys came to Victoria and Rev. McCoy took charge of St. Columba, St. Aidan’s and Knox Presbyterian Churches. He was Moderator of the Synod of BC and a delegate to a Pan-Presbyterian World’s Council in Europe. In 1922 Westminster Hall Theological College made him an honorary Doctor of Divinity for his long and distinguished service to the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Rev. McCoy occasionally peformed mariage ceremonies in the house, including Vera Harris (1429 Vining St, Fernwood) and Charles Carleton in 1916. The McCoys were still living here when they died a week apart in 1927.

1928: James Henry and Eliza Holland married in Victoria in 1918. James was a DND shipwright, painter and decorator at the Naval Dockyard.
1929: Robert Percival “Percy” and Edith Eliza Howell. Percy, born in Victoria in 1891, was the grandson of Alfred and Jane Howell, who lived in the 1890s at 1286 Pembroke St, Fernwood. Percy was a driver for Standard Steam Laundry, then a federal civil servant for eight years until retiring in 1967.

1931-36: Mrs. Isabel Chalmers Crawford (b. Ontario, 1866-1941), widow of James W, their daughter Isabel Chalmers, a saleswoman at HBC, and their son Joseph, a salesman at Ideal Cigar Store.
1937-47: Donald Joseph McIntosh (1879-1977), Victoria Maria (1877-1943), and their son Donald B. McIntosh. Donald Sr, a plumber, was retired by 1947, and Donald Jr was a machinist.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Statement of Significance (Canadian Register of Historic Places)

• Before & Afters

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume One: Fernwood & Victoria West