Heritage Register
Fernwood

1429 Vining Street (ex-11, then 70 Milne St)

Built 1894-95; 1909
Heritage-Registered

For: Jessie & Edwin Harris
Designer/Builder: Edwin Harris

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a two-storey, front-gabled Queen Anne house with a two-storey, gabled extension on the right side. All the gables are pedimented. A two-storey box bay is centred on the lower floor between the front porch on the left and what used to be an inset corner porch on the right; the latter has been filled in. The window casings and the aprons on the bay have a scalloped pattern. The entry porch has chamfered square posts and a solid balustrade. The porch roof was restored to its original design c.2009. The entire house is shingled. There are several additions on the rear. It is now five apartments

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1894-1923: According to a memoir written in 1980 by daughter Una Mabel Harris Dillon, Edwin C. Harris (1855-1938) and his wife Jessie Wood (b. 1865) brought their family from Gores Landing, ON, c.1891. At a public auction on 28 June 1894 they bought two lots with four cottages on them, built by George Powers (1431 & 1433 Vining). They lived in one and sold the others. However, theirs was soon lost in a fire. The family moved into the carriage house and Edwin began building their new home, adding to it for a number of years. It was mostly completed by 1909. Edwin was a plaster contractor, and demonstrated his skills on elaborate moldings and cornices in the front hall and parlour. He did the plasterwork in several theatres and also crafted violins. However, in 1917, when daughter Violet Victoria Marguerite Harris married, Edwin was listed as a farmer. It was during WWI, when there was little construction, and farming was an essential service to supply food. When their son Ira “Vincent” signed up for WWI in 1918, he listed his address as Pemberton Meadows, BC. This was the name of the Fairfield flats below Government House, and was possibly where they were farming.

In 1909, daughter Winnifred Lola “Winnie” married in the house. About 1910 after four of their nine children had left home, Jessie took in a paying boarder. It was discovered the boarder had smallpox, the house was quarantined and six members of the family taken to the quarantine station. All survived, but no more rooms were let. The family moved to the States about 1923. Edwin died at Mount Hood, Oregon, where he and Jessie were living with son Vincent.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1927: Electrician and farm labourer Archibald McCully and Alice Irwin married in Victoria in 1920 in The Manse, Burleith, formerly the grand home on the Gorge of James and Laura Dunsmuir. The McCullys later lived on Rocky Point Rd in Metchosin.

1934-46: Mary Ann Price (née Tipney, b. Keynsham, near Bath, ENG, 1885-1949), the widow of Frederick Price, and her brother-in-law Sidney “Sid” Smart (b. Bristol, ENG, 1877-1969), a building contractor. In 1934 they converted the house to five suites, then seven, as The Lodge Apartments. Mary Ann and Sid had owned and managed the Duchess Apartments at 1902 Duchess St since 1932. They lived in #3, The Lodge from 1936-41. From 1942 Sid ran The Lodge and he and Mary Ann lived at 120 Government St. Sid retired in 1946.

1947-49, William Henry Leake was manager of The Lodge with his parents John William and Maud Eleanor Mary Leake. They retired to Victoria c.1943 and lived at 622 Garbally Rd.
1951-64: #1, machinist Henry Paul Willoughby (b. ENG 1877-1965). who retired in 1945 as a fitter at Yarrows. This was no longer The Lodge by 1964.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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