Heritage Register
Fernwood

1431 Vining Street (ex-3, then 13 Milne St)

Built 1891; 1918
Heritage-Designated 2004

For: George Powers

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a 1½ storey, shallow front-gabled Homestead house. On the right side is a gabled through-the-roof wall dormer above a shed-roofed square bay on the main floor. In the apex of the front gable is stickwork above a dentilated stringcourse. On the left lower floor is an angled, hip-roofed bay. On the right is a sunburst in the pedimented gable over the porch. The porch has chamfered and bracketed square posts, square spindles in the frieze and square balusters. There are brackets in the eaves of the box bay and the porch, and wooden cresting on both gables and the roof ridge. It is clad in drop siding. This house and 1433 Vining St were originally almost identical one-storey cottages. A second storey was added on 1431 in 1918.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1891-94: This is one of the two remaining houses built by George Leonard Powers (b. New Brunswick, 1856-1929) in this block. George was a farmer, labourer, property developer and house builder. He built four cottages on two lots on Vining St, two west of here (1429 Vining St), 1431 and 1433 Vining St, and sold the four houses at auction on 28 June 1894. George married Cecelia (née Powers, b. Carleton Co, NB, 1856-1923) in Victoria in 1883, and they farmed for decades on Lansdowne Rd. They lost two babies: George, stillborn, is buried with Catherine’s parents in Ross Bay Cemetery; Warren is by himself in RBC with a pretty baby monument. Cecelia died while her husband was in hospital, and is buried in an unmarked section of RBC. George resided at Rocky Point when he died and is buried in Royal Oak Burial Park.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Owner: 1894-1903: William Moore (1871-1950) of Moore & Whittington, contractors and mill owners. He paid the taxes but lived at 1437 Vining St, except for 1898-99 when he and his wife Mary Alena “Lena” lived here. Their son William Harold Moore was born in this house in November 1899. On 26 April 1900, the house was advertised in the Victoria Daily Colonist as: “4-roomed cottage, bath, hot and cold water. Rent $4.50 (per month). Apply Moore & Whittington, Carpenters & Builders, 106 Douglas St.”

Tenants: 1900-02: Frederick Abel and Alice Isoline Graham, and in 1902, their boarder, carpenter William Ward. Fred and Alice came to Victoria in the early 1890s and married in 1898. Fred was a baker, employed in 1910 by Brackman-Ker Milling Co, then Rennie and Taylor’s Imperial Bakery at 1284-98 Gladstone Av, Fernwood. By 1946 he was a wrapper at Weston’s, “Bakers of Dutch Oven Bread”, which had bought out Rennie and Taylor. Fred was a member of Caribou Court No. 743 IOF. Their daughter Erma Iona Isoline was born in this house in 1900.

1903: William Moore’s parents, carpenter William and Caroline Moore lived here. They moved to Victoria from Ontario in 1901.

Owners: 1908-40: James Jackson (b. ENG 1874-1952) and Sarah Ann (née Long, b. Lancaster, ENG, 1877-1981) came to Victoria in 1904. James was a tram repairer for BC Electric Railway (BCER). Throughout the 1930s he was janitor at the Ancient Order of Foresters (AOF) Hall at 1415 Broad St. Sarah was a resident of Gorge Road Hospital when she died at 103.

1941-43: Retired postal clerk Percy George and Emily Eaton came to Canada from England c.1897 and 1905 respectively, and to BC c.1938. They later moved to Vancouver to be near family.

1944-76: Thomas Herbert Pellow (b. Victoria, 1892-1955) and Annie Millicent (née Wright, b. London, ENG, 1895-1995) married in Victoria in 1920. Tom’s parents Thomas Herbert and Nora Pellow came here from Nova Scotia c.1887. Listed as a general artisan on his marriage certificate, Tom was a steward for 13 years with the Royal Canadian Legion until retiring in 1952. Grandson Paul Pellow, owner of Admirals Roofing, has roofed many heritage houses in Greater Victoria.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• GIS Map of Victoria Heritage Register Properties

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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