Heritage Register
Fernwood

1417 Pembroke Street
(ex-South Rd, 103 North Pembroke St)
Tintern

Built 1892
Heritage-Designated 1984

For: William & Annie Heatherbell

Builder: Willliam Heatherbell

ARCHITECTURE:

Tintern is a fine example of William Heatherbell’s work as a mason, with its lintels and quoins rendered in stucco highlighting the red brick walls. It is a 1½-storey, cross-gabled Vernacular brick building. The wall chimney on the left goes through the roof of the left gable. There is a two-storey, gabled square bay on the right. The front gable has decorative masonry above the stringcourse. There is an angled bay on the right side of the main floor. It has a flat roof with many brackets and an ornamental brick frieze. To the left of the bay is a c.1910 Arts & Crafts porch. It has a gabled roof supported on square posts and open timberwork in the gable. The post piers and the balustrade are shingled.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1892-1904: Bricklayer and mason William “Billy” Heatherbell (b. Liverpool, ENG, 1862-1942) and Annie (b. Shrewsbury, ENG, c.1859-1896) came to Victoria in 1884. In 1892 Billy worked for Smith and Elford of Victoria Brick & Tile Co (1442 Elford St, Fernwood). Examples of Billy’s skill in brick and stone include the BC Protestant Orphan’s Home (now the Cridge Centre, 1190 Kings Rd, Oaklands), St. Ann’s Convent (835 Fairfield Rd, Fairfield), the Legislative Buildings (501 Belleville St, James Bay), Hatley Park Castle and Work Point Barracks in Esquimalt.

Like Sarah Adams and her son Fred (1215 Pembroke St), Billy and Annie were passengers on the over-loaded streetcar when the Point Ellice Bridge collapsed in May 1896, killing 55. “Mrs. William Heatherbell, of South Road, Spring Ridge, was sitting with her husband about the centre of the car. Mr. Heatherbell had a miraculous escape, receiving few injuries. His wife was drowned.” VDC, 27.05.1896, pg.1. Annie’s funeral was held at the Adams’ house. Billy remarried in 1899, to newly-arrived Mary “Minnie” Teresa Hawton (b. Clifton, Bristol, ENG, 1872-1940). They had two children: stenographer Margaret Florence; Ernest Hawkin moved to Virginia, USA. In 1904 William built another brick house at 903 Linden Av, Rockland, and the family moved there. William was a member of Vancouver & Quadra Lodge No.2, AF&AM.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1904-48: Barrister William Percyval “Willie” Marchant (b. Bristol, ENG, 1879-1948) and Mary Ann (née Wilson, b. Nanaimo, 1881-1946) married in 1903 in Emmanuel Baptist Church (1900 Fernwood Rd). Willie came to Canada with his family in 1889; his father William was a customs inspector. Mary Ann’s mother Mary Hawkes was also born in Nanaimo. Their children were Gladys and Bertram “Charles”. By 1912 Willie was deputy registrar of the BC Supreme Court, but had left by 1920 to become a partner with David S. Tait (902 Foul Bay Rd, Gonzales) in Tait & Marchant, barristers-at-law. Willie practised until 1947.

1950-51: Olson Motors “washerman” Douglas B. and Pearl Turner.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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