Heritage Register
Fernwood

1349 Grant Street

Built 1911
Heritage-Registered

For: Ella & Andrew J. Thompson

Builder: Andrew J. Thompson

ARCHITECTURE:

This two-storey, hipped-roof house appears to be a Foursquare. The exception is the wide projecting second floor bay, created by cutting away the two front corners of the house. All the shallow hipped roofs have wide eaves and Classical modillions. The right side has a small bracketed box bay interrupting the wide pent roof which is continuous with the hipped roof of the verandah. On the left are two cantilevered angled bays, and a square bay on the upper floor. The full-width Arts & Crafts verandah has a centrally located pedimented portico supported on brackets over the entrance, and two wide angled bays. There are massive square panelled posts on battered piers with bevelled siding. The balustrade is made up of a heavy top rail and square balusters set on an angle. The upper floor and box bay are shingled, the main floor has bevelled siding; the foundation is concrete block covered on the front with lattice. It was duplexed in 1933 and converted to nine suites in 1946-47.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1911-17: Carpenter and contractor Andrew J. “A.J.” Thompson (b. PEI 1882) and Ella/Ellen R. (b. Ontario 1882) lived in Victoria from 1909-17; they had two roomers in the house in 1911. In 1917 A.J. was working for Cameron Genoa Shipbuilders Ltd, at Point Ellice.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1921-30: Widowed retired farmer Daniel Branchley Keeler (1862-1930) from Bladworth, SK.
1931-34: John Moxham Cooper (b. Romsey, Hants, ENG, 1867-1941) and Matilda Emily (née Vincent, b. ENG, 1865-1946) emigrated to Saskatchewan in 1911. They came to Victoria in 1929, and John worked as a decorator until retiring in 1938. When John died they were residing at 1195 Fort St (Rockland); Matilda was residing at the Aged Ladies Home when she died.
1933-34: duplexed: Carpenter David Thomas Hamilton (b. Oxford Co, ON, 1869-1954) and Florence Elizabeth (née Parson, b. Oxford Co, ON, 1872-1970) came to Victoria in 1911.
1935: John McCurdy Cooper (b. Pennsylvania, 1876-1957), proprietor of the Beaver Barber Shop at 1311 Gladstone St, Fernwood, from 1935-49, and Ellen Elise (née Chalk, b. ENG, 1872-1949).
1937: Irene Colbert (1811 Belmont Av, Fernwood). 1936-41: Retirees Henry Launcelot Wilson (1885-1963) and Clara Maud (née Nancekivelle, 1884-1981) were born in Ingersoll, ON, and came to Victoria in 1921.

1942-45: Retirees Phillip John Wybourn (b. ENG, 1886-1958) and May; Phillip had been a security officer with the Great Northern Railway for 10 years until retiring in 1938. When he died, he was married to Sophia Bushen.
1946-47: Converted to the 9-suite Bertley Apartments for owner Ellen Mayes Nicks (née Skerry, 1888-1954), widow of Harold Anthony Nicks. Ellen was born in the now-deserted village of North Ormsby in the Lincolnshire Wolds, ENG, came to Canada in 1912 and to BC in 1945.
1948: Owners Wilbert Stanley Groat (b. Dorchester, ON, 1901-1986) and Gertrude Mae Jones (née Grant, b. Swan River, MB, c. 1905) lived at 989 Redfern St. They married in Kamloops, BC, in 1931.
1949-55: Owners Sydney and Irene M. Ash; Syd was a Hudson Lumber Co millworker.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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