Heritage Register
Fernwood

1190 Fort Street (ex-20 Cadboro Bay Rd)

Built 189092
Heritage-Designated 1988

For: John Pitcairn Elford

Builder: John Pitcairn Elford

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a two-storey, cubical Italianate house. It is hip-roofed with sandwich brackets, paired at the corners, on a panelled frieze under the eaves. The left side has an original angled bay on the lower floor and a 1990s carport in front. A triangular bay on the rear addition was copied from 1192 Fort St. The right side wall had to be stuccoed for the fire code. There is an angled hipped roof on the left front above a two-storey angled bay. A pent roof separates the floors between the bays. A small entry porch to the right of the bay has a flat roof with a small balcony. The pent roof and the porch had been removed. The door with Queen Anne glass is new to the house. The roofs of the small bays, the pent roof and the porch have decorative shingles. The body is clad in drop siding. The building had been stuccoed and in poor condition for many years.

Owners Thomas “Foster” Isherwood (1922-2011) and Constance “Connie” (née Holmes), QC, a decade earlier had restored 1192 Fort St. They restored 1190 in the late 1980s, removing the stucco which covered the original siding and revealing shadow lines of the missing details. Connie was the 2006 recipient of the UVic Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award for Lifetime Achievement.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

The house was built as a rental property by John Pitcairn Elford (1442 Elford St, Fernwood), contractor and founder of the Victoria Brick and Tile Co with William Smith, who lived on Smith Hill in Hillside-Quadra. Elford also built 1119 Ormond St, Fernwood, around the corner, and 1442 Elford St.

Tenants: 1891-1908: William Frederick “Fred” McCulloch (b. Omagh, County Tyrone, IRL,1838-1907) and Jennie Frances (née Long, b. Milwaukee, WI, 1850-1924). Fred came with his family in 1847 to Stratford, ON, then crossed the continent by way of the Panama Canal to take part in the California Gold Rush. He and Jennie came back to Canada in 1883. He was again involved in mining as an assayer and mining recorder for the BC government at Atlin during the Yukon and Klondike Gold Rush. Fred was stricken with paralysis in 1906 and died the next year. In 1908 Jennie had a house built for her family at 912 Linden. The McCulloch’s daughter Jennie Long was employed as a clerk in the civil service. In 1921 she married historian, author and architectural draughtsman Major Frederick Victor Longstaff, who had been living at the Union Club. He wrote several books on the history of the Esquimalt naval base.

The McCullochs’ lodgers: 1891: Joshua Peebles Falls, an accountant at Richardson & Heathorn, manufacturers’ & importers’ agents.
1891-93: Charles Waldo Minor, jeweller and watchmaker with Kingham & Minor, 49 Government St.
1894: Joshua Kingham, jeweller of Kingham & Minor, in 1897 married Grace Helen Fawcett, the niece of one of Victoria’s most notable and earliest historians, Edgar Fawcett. Joshua became a bookkeeper, then a coal merchant and agent for New Vancouver Coal Co.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Owners: 1909: Mary Ware, widow of Alfred, was living at 320 Linden Av, Fairfield, when she died.
1910-15: Stanley Gibbons Peele (b. New Westminster, BC, 1878-1962), and Eliza (Lyle) Wells (née Woodall, b. Sidney, NS, 1880-1949). Stanley, an electrical engineer with BCER, later became Superintendent of Power. 1918: John D. Corke, carpenter, builder and contractor.

1920-38: Henry Crocker (b. ENG 1865-1929) and Emma Christina (née Brant, b. Osage, KS, USA, 1878-1951) married in Victoria in 1898. Henry came to Canada c.1889. He was a seaman until the year of his death, when he was listed as a purveyor of orthopedic appliances at 1112 Government St. Emma continued to live in the house, then married in 1935 Andrew Leitch (b. Newport, SCT, 1862-1936). Andrew died just one year later, and Emma remained in the house for two more years.

For several years, Emma rented part of the house.
1933: Newlyweds Gordon Stephen and Kathleen Guest. Gordon was a salesman for Jameson’s Electric.
1934: National Motors accountant Charles Herbert and Mary Edith Coull married in Victoria in 1928.
1937: Ralph and Thelma Henrietta Anderson married in Nanaimo in 1936. Ralph, born in Saanich, was a farmer, logger and general labourer. In 1936 they lived at 1140 Fort St.

Owners: 1939-47: Carpenter Walter Edward Ford (b. ENG, 1895-1968) and Elsie Aleta (née Waddington) rented out housekeeping rooms. For six years before retiring in 1966, Walter was a maintenance engineer for the Bank of Nova Scotia.
1948-50: Miss Sadie Lennon, who rented out rooms.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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