Heritage Register
Fernwood

2024 Belmont Avenue

Built 1913
Heritage-Registered

For: Arthur & Elizabeth Cameron

Architects: E. Stanley Mitton/Henry H. Gillingham

ARCHITECTURE:

This two-storey house is plan #1198B from Mitton’s plan book. It is a British Arts & Crafts Bungalow and a major landmark in the Fernwood neighbourhood. It is an L-plan house with wide flat gables on the front and right sides. Modillions and knee brackets support open eaves which appear to be wide because there are no bargeboards. The upper floor windows have large diamond-shaped panes with wooden muntins in the upper sashes, and all have horns, which is an unusual feature for a 1913 house. There is a curved window in the enclosed sleeping porch which sits on the verandah roof. A Classical Revival Palladian window with small leaded diamond-shaped panes is on the right side. The wrap-around verandah has massive battered granite piers which support heavy square double and triple Arts & Crafts posts. It has narrow square wooden balusters between flat slats with cutouts. The sloping front step balustrade is granite capped with granite slabs. There is a large brick wall chimney on the left. On the rear is a two-storey shed roofed extension for the back porch and what may originally have been another open balcony above. Asbestos shingles still cover the original siding.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
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1913-40: Arthur Leslie Cameron (b. Springfield, ON, 1856-1940) and Elizabeth (née Parrish, b. Upbridge, ON 1858-1942) moved to Manitoba by 1886 and Calgary by 1888. Arthur was a merchant for about 20 years before retiring in 1906. They moved to Victoria in 1913. Their son Gordon Arthur Cameron was a law student living at home in 1920, having served during WWI with the 15th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, and Royal Flying Corps. Gordon became a Queens Council.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1941-46: The Rev. Percy Edmund Wills (b. Victoria 1898-1990), superintendent of the Soldiers’ & Airmen’s Christian Association, and his wife Margaret Irene (née Lehoar, b. USA, 1903-1972). 1950-54: Retired farmer and carpenter Joseph Emmanuel Holm (b. Wisconsin, USA, 1895-1962) and Tekla A. (née Borgstrom).

In 1958 the house was converted to nine suites, and in 1966 to a foster home, St. Chad’s Anglican Home for Boys. In 1988 it became a care home for L’Arche Society of Victoria, which also owned two Parfitt Bros homes, 2663 Fernwood Rd (Oaklands) and 1446 Gladstone Av. It was sold again in 2010.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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