Heritage Register
Fernwood

1441 Gladstone Avenue
(ex-109 North Chatham St)

Built 1898
Heritage-Registered

For: Janet & David Christie

Builder: David Christie

ARCHITECTURE:

This 1½-storey Homestead-style house is front-gabled with an unusual full-height, gabled square bay on the right side. There are returns on both gables. Sandwich brackets under the eaves are paired at the corners under the returns. An offset hipped roof on the front is over a porch and an angled bay. The porch has one turned square post on the corner and a recently-added frieze and balustrade. The windows are two-over-two on the upper floor and one-over-one on the main. It is clad in drop siding with decorative shingles in the upper gables.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1898-1938: Janet Elizabeth “Nettie” (née Moore, b. York Co, NB, 1864-1947) and carpenter David Christie (b. NB, 1850-1932) came to Victoria c.1890. David worked for some years with Moore & Whittington (1433 & 1437 Vining St, Fernwood), before becoming an independent contractor. Nettie remained in the house for several years after David’s death. Their son Neil Moore “Sunny Jim” Christie was a keen motorcyclist and won many races. In 1911 he worked on the construction of the first 40 miles of the Island Highway. He then worked as a mechanic for six years with Vancouver Island Motor Co before joining the British Army in WWI as a private in the 669th Mechanical Motor Transport Co. He was one of just 150 chosen to go to Africa. In February 1917 he died at 25 of a protracted illness in East Africa and is buried in Morogoro War Graves Cemetery, Tanzania.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1939: Charles Ballam (b. Liverpool, ENG, 1885-1966) and Ellen (née Petticrew, b. Victoria, 1892-1977). Charles established the Reliable Plumbing Co in 1918. He sold it to his son Philip in 1956, who changed the name to Phil Ballam Plumbing & Heating Co. Phil sold it in 1972, but the business still retains the Ballam name.

1941-42: Dougal Alexander and Sima Shirley McDonald; Dougal was a welder with VMD during WWII, then with Amerada Steel Erectors in Vancouver, retiring in 1965 after 42 years in the industry.
1943-44: Grocery store owner Arthur and Isabel Beveridge Wyatt Thatcher were both widowed when they married in Duncan in 1919.
1945-46: Mechanic, then realtor Edward Leslie and Lalia Bell Wilkinson. 1947: Sidney Roofing employee Robert A. and Dorothy E. Glenn.
1948: Mrs. Olga Kruger, a nurse at St Joseph’s Hospital.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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