Heritage Register
Fernwood

1923 Belmont Avenue

Built 1912
Heritage-Designated 2004

For: John & Bertha Hall

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a 1½ storey Edwardian Vernacular Arts & Crafts house with a steeply-pitched, pedimented, front-gabled roof. There are a gabled roof dormer and a square box bay on brackets on the left side. On the right is a full-height gabled square bay extension with a second entrance covered by an awning. A pent roof, which creates the pediment, sits above a bracketed box bay on the left front and an inset corner porch with Tuscan columns on the right. The balustrade is solid and clad in double-bevelled siding, as is the body of the house. The upper gable and the foundation are shingled.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

John Hall (b. Ontario, 1846-1934) and Bertha built this house and 1509 Gladstone Av as revenue properties, then sold them. They lived next door at 1919 Belmont Av. John was a timberman who came to Victoria in 1907. Bertha lived next door at 1919 Belmont until 1939.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1912-14: Alfred “Percy” Huggett (1890-1919) was born in Victoria to Alfred and Flora Huggett (1203 Yukon St, Fernwood). He worked for Inland Revenue prior to joining the CEF during WWI; Company Sergeant-Major Percy Huggett was wounded at the Somme in 1916. In England Percy became a physical training instructor and served with the Canadian Army gymnastic staff. He married in England in 1918, but died soon after of bronchial pneumonia and Spanish Influenza.

1915-17: John Henry Ward (b. IRL, 1856-1938) and Charlotte Wheeler Byron (née Emory, b. Philadelphia, USA, c.1875-1960) married in Vancouver in 1914. John joined the Northwest Mounted Police and was at Fort Walsh in 1885 when the Riel Rebellion broke out. He was sent as a dispatch rider to Fort McLeod, Calgary, Fort Saskatchewan and Battleford, but was shot at Bullyea’s Ford. John survived, and later worked for the CPR freight department, then BC Telephone in Nelson from c.1900 until coming to Victoria in 1911. He worked for BC Telephone for 34 years.
1918-20: Civil engineer Peter “Warren” Wentworth Bell married Helen Hayward (b. Victoria, 1906) in 1929. 1921-23: Charles Thomas Nelson, wholesale grocery broker and manufacturer’s agent with an office at 518 Yates St. A bachelor, Charles came to Victoria from Toronto in 1904. He retired in 1939 after 35 years in the business, and was living in Mount Edwards Apts, 1002 Vancouver St, Fairfield, when he died in 1963.

1925-28: George H.E. and Violet Green married in 1924. They later lived at 2645 Fernwood Rd (Oaklands), built by her father Fred Parfitt and his brothers (1921-23 Fernwood, Fernwood).
1929-36: Murray Harold Turner (b. Bexley Heath, ENG, 1894-1974) and Helen (née Longley). Murray was a bakery salesman, then a driver with Rennie & Taylor Ltd (1284-98 Gladstone Av, Fernwood). He then worked for DND Works Department. Helen’s father, widower William Edward Longley, a retired rancher, lived with them when he died in 1931.
1938-40: Broker James Curtis Watson (b. Orillia, ON, 1890-1971), his wife Dorothy (née Woodward, b. Victoria, 1891-1986) and their sons Campbell and Laurence. When the Watsons married, James was a Flight Lieutenant, RN, serving in WWI. Dorothy was the daughter of A.J. Woodward the florist.

1945-46: John and Olive Josephine Dugdale from England; John was a steam fitter at VMD and later at HMC Dockyard.
1950-51: Painter and decorator Raymond Percy Moore (b. Victoria, 1920-1981) and Hazel Louise (née Hewer, b. Vegreville, AB, 1920-1967).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register

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