Heritage Register
Fernwood

1461 Pembroke Street

Built 1911-12
Heritage-Designated (includes interior features) 1997

For: Earl & Ella Clarke

Designer/Builder: attributed to Earl Clarke

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a shingled British Arts & Crafts house of 1½ storeys; the house appears taller because of its full-height basement and siting on a steep slope. It has a front-gabled roof with a gabled wing and shed-roofed extension on the right side. There is a through-the-roof chimney on the right wall. On the left are a shed-roofed dormer and the side-gabled entrance porch. The front gable is clad in roughcast and half-timbering, and supported on two knee brackets. It is jettied over a wide cantilevered box bay with leaded and stained glass windows. The large bay was reportedly installed to accommodate Earl Clarke’s art studio. There is stained glass in many of the windows. The front steps on the left side are long and lead up to a small porch with flared shingled posts on river rock piers. The foundation is stone. Many of the main rooms in this house, including Earl’s studio, have been designated heritage, one of the first house interiors to be so designated in Victoria.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1912-54: Earl Winton “Bunny” Clarke (b. Woodstock, ON, 1879-1954) and Ella Jane Martin (b. Woodstock 1877-1942) married in 1910 in Guelph, ON. Earl’s parents were born in Woodstock, came to BC in 1881 and Victoria in 1894. Earl went to Victoria High School and was class valedictorian, then earned an arts degree in 1908 from McMaster University. Earl taught for 50 years, the last 37 at Vic High from 1908 until 1945.

Earl and Ella had two daughters, Anna Priscilla and Eleanor Mabel. Eleanor was married in the house in 1945. After Ella’s death Earl married widow Minnie Sophia (née Bloss, b. Lansing, MI, 1875-1957).

Earl was a sculptor as well as a teacher, and taught art at Vic High (1260 Grant St, Fernwood). He created the bronze war memorial to the three teachers and 82 students who died in WWI. After unveiling the memorial, Lt.Gov. Walter C. Nichol offered Earl a scholarship for a year’s study in Europe. He went to the British Academy in Rome in 1926-27, and thereafter executed a number of works. The Clarkes were still residing at 1461 when Earl died. He was a member of Vancouver-Quadra Lodge No.2 AF&AM; the Masons conducted his funeral and he was buried in Ross Bay Cemetery. When she died, Minnie was living around the corner at 1818 Belmont Av with Earl’s sister, Mabel Winnifred Rushforth.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1989-99: William Oscar and June Dawn Hedemark made several alterations, including closing in the porte-cochère under the sunroom. They had the house designated heritage.
1999-2012: Artist Joyce Kline and writer Peter Such ran the Earle Clarke House Bed & Breakfast here. Because of their involvement in theatre and the arts, they hosted in this house many prominent artists, actors, directors, writers, designers and others from related fields.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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