Heritage Register
Fernwood

2254 Belmont Avenue
(ex-2154 Haughton, 2154 Belmont Av)

Built 1909
Heritage-Designated 2011

For: Malcolm & Sarah Smith

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a 1½-storey, front-gabled Edwardian Vernacular Arts & Crafts house with two gabled roof dormers. The left dormer has a small balcony sitting on the main roof. The front gable in unusual in that it has a bank of four windows, not two or three. All the gables have bargeboards with layered triangular ends. An angled bay on the lower right front has a hipped pent roof which sits in the gable above the dentilated beltcourse. It is balanced on the left by a half-width recessed corner porch, which was enclosed until recent restoration. It has five heavily chamfered posts and a pilaster, and a small wooden balustrade between the solid piers. The front door has glazed side panels and a transom with art-glass. A ribbon window of five lights sits on the wall behind the porch on the left. The foundation, front step balustrades and property edging are constructed of pre-cast concrete blocks. The house is covered in beaded double-bevelled siding, while the upper gables are shingled. This house was built for $3,000 and shares several features with its neighbour at 2306 Belmont, which also has heavily chamfered posts, a similar entry, art glass, and foundation blocks. The two were built within months of each other.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
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1909-29: Farmers Malcolm Smith (1858-1916) and Sarah retired to Victoria. After Malcolm’s death, Sarah lived in the house until 1929.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1930: George Herbert and Annie Elizabeth Moody were born in Nottingham, England, and came to Victoria in 1910. In 1915 George joined the CEF to fight in Europe during WWI. He was a railroader in England, and had a trucking business in Victoria until retiring in 1940.

1931-43: Retired farmers Benjamin Cooney (1853-1942) and his sister Rachel Elizabeth Cooney (1857-1943) were born in Peterborough, ON, of Irish immigrant parents. They lived in the Regina, SK, area for the 1901, 1906 and 1911 censuses, and at first farmed with their brother William E. and sister Margaret Marie (1869-1927). None of the siblings married. In 1911 Benjamin was managing a farm for Gus Michleborough and Rachel was a servant in the household. Benjamin and his sisters came to Victoria c.1914-15.

1944-46: Widower Clarence John Moscrip, a retired farmer, worked at HMC Dockyard during WWII. Grown children Claire, Doris, Joseph and Melvin lived with him. 1947: Postman Percival A. and Jean Jones; Percy was a WWII veteran.

1948-2008: Patrick Francis “Pat” Skinner (b. London, ENG, 1904-1976) and Dorothy Grace (née Burford, b. Winnipeg 1915-2007). Dorothy first worked for the government in Manitoba. During WWII she enlisted in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC), serving as secretary to the Commanding Officer, Royal Canadian Dental Corps in Winnipeg. Dorothy met Pat in the Corps and they married in 1948. They moved to Victoria and ran a business from their basement called Hollins-Skinner Letter Service, later Admineo Skinner Multigraphers. After surgery in 1976, Dorothy joined the United Ostomy Assoc of Canada, Victoria Chapter, and produced their newsletters for decades. Her avid volunteerism in many areas earned her a UOAC Unsung Hero Award in 1997.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register

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