Heritage Register
Fernwood

1569 Pembroke Street
(ex-1549 Pembroke St)

Built 1914
Heritage-Designated 1986

For: Arthur & Sidney Hayward

Builder: Hayward Bros. Ltd.

ARCHITECTURE:

The sloping lot accents the visibility of this 1½ storey, front-gabled British Arts & Crafts home. The house has wide overhanging eaves, and right and left gabled roof dormers. All gables have bargeboards with long, narrow slits. They are supported by pyramidal-pointed triangular knee brackets. There is a cantilevered box bay on the left side. On the right is a small window above the beltcourse under the eaves; a glass-enclosed back porch is on the right rear. The front gable has a shallow box bay flanked by two small casement windows. There are flared shingles over the bay and dentils in its apron. A full-width recessed front verandah shelters a wide angled bay on the left, the front door and a small hall window. The transom in the bay, the door and the window all have stained glass. The verandah has three Tuscan columns on piers covered in bevelled siding and square balusters. The side-facing steps have piers and balusters on the landing and a solid sloped balustrade. There are shingles above the beltcourse and bevelled siding below.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

This house, #1549 until 1950, was built speculatively, for $2,500, by Arthur E. Hayward (b. ENG, 1879) and Sidney Clement Hayward (b. Hants, ENG, 1881) who came to Canada in 1900 and 1907, respectively. They are listed in 1912 as Hayward Bros, building contractors, at 1335 Grant St. They left Victoria by 1917.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Owners: 1914-29: John Thomas Postgate Fowler (1868-1946) and Clara (née Richardson, 1874-1929) were born in Scarborough, Yorks, England. They came to Victoria in 1906 and opened The Beehive, dealing in yarns, fabrics and woolen underwear; the latter was displayed from hooks on the ceiling. By the time John died, their son Owen ran the shop and dealt only in wools. Owen invented Zero wool wash, manufacturing it at first in the family home basement at 463 Niagara St, James Bay. He sold the shop in the 1950s; it moved several times but still existed in 2012.

Tenants: 1917: Mrs. Colin Simson Smith; no information is available on her name or history, but the 1901 census lists Colin Simson Smith as married but living alone, born of Scottish stock in Georgetown, Demerara, British Guiana, in 1854. He trained as a civil engineer in England, emigrated to Kelowna, BC, Canada, in 1893, and worked as a fruit grower and civil engineer. His 1941 death certificate does not list a wife.

1918: City teamster and maintainance worker Levi and Mary Jane LaLonde, and their offspring: Adrian Levi, whose last four months were spent in Lytton, BC, was a clerk at the Lido Restaurant in Seattle before that. Zillah Beatrice was a clerk at Northwestern Creamery. Revercombe Motor Co mechanic Virgil Thomas married Charlotte Elizabeth “Lottie” Watson in 1920, and later had his own automotive business until retiring in 1953. [Note: Lottie’s parents were 1920-23 Saanich Reeve and stonemason George Watson and Elizabeth Grant, Gordon Head pioneers. George’s cousin was J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan; the Watsons named their 1775 Barrie Rd house Thrums, after Barrie’s other famous book, A Window on Thrums. Thrums is a designated heritage house in Saanich.]

1920: Victoria Book & Stationery Co clerk Stanley and Pauline May Porter married in Victoria in 1910. Stan worked at VB&S c.33 years until his death. Pauline resided at 642 Simcoe St, James Bay, when she died.

1921: Ernest Guy Morley (b. Victoria 1887-1977) and Lillian Helen Dyson married in Victoria in 1915. [Ernest was a grandson of pioneer grocer and Victoria mayor James Fell.] Ernest and Frederick C. Pauline owned Morley-Pauline Rubber Co and sold automobile tires.

Tenants, then owners: 1924-32: Empress Hotel fireman George Glover and Gladys E. Glover, an elevator operator, then a laundress at the Empress Hotel. The Glovers moved to 1561 Pembroke St.

Owners: 1938-43: Helene and Alan S. Catt, a salesman for National Motors, then proprietor of Alan’s Drive-In service station at 1351 Esquimalt Rd.
1944: Wood dealer Harry and Rossine Musfelt, Violet Musfelt, the widow of R. Musfelt, and William H, a driver for Harry Musfelt.
1946-49: George McIntosh (b. Vancouver 1904) and Margaret T. Henderson (née Campbell, b. Campbeltown, SCT, 1908) married in Victoria in 1930. George, a cabinetmaker, had a woodwork shop in the Lim Dat Building at 1802 Government St in Chinatown.
1950-65: Farmers James Muir Watson and Agnes Elizabeth (née Acton, b. Lemberg, SK, 1892-1981) retired here in 1946 from Ellisboro, SK.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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