Heritage Register
Fernwood

1221 Yukon Street
(ex-9, then 1221 Whittaker Rd)

Built 1892
Heritage-Designated 1991

For: William Whittaker

ARCHITECTURE:

This is at the top end of the row of four almost identical Italianate working-class homes built by William Whittaker (1201-03 Yukon St) in 1892. See 1209 Yukon for house description. 1221 differs from 1209 in that it has corbelled chimneys. It also has the addition of a second storey stairway on the right side, and a second door on the front porch, as it is now duplexed. The front porch, which had lost all of its original detailing, was restored in 2000 by Joan Petit.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Like the others, this house was vacant many times in its first four decades. 1897-1900: Post office inspector’s office clerk James Fairgrieve Murray (b. Oxford Co, ON, 1871-1951) and Jessie May (née White, b. Victoria 1873-1962) married in Victoria in 1896. [Note: Jessie Murray’s parents William White and Jessie Irvine married in 1873. Her Aunt Christina Irvine married Samuel Whittaker (1201-03 Yukon St).] James was Dominion Postal Service District Superintendent in Vancouver when he retired in 1936 after 47 years. The Murrays’ daughter Dorothea Agnes Jessie never married and resided with her parents until their deaths; she was an Inland Revenue clerk in the civil service in Vancouver.

Their son Kenneth William Fairgrieve Murray, born in 1897 while they lived in the house, was still a student when he signed up in 1916 to fight in WWI. He served with the Canadian Infantry Regimental Depot (BC) and the Royal Air Force. Lieut. Murray died on January 7, 1918 and is buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France, at Pas de Calais.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1900-01: Leon Uscona and Mary Agnes “Minnie” Conyers. Leon came to BC from Bermuda c.1891. He was a bookkeeper, then a cannery manager on the Skeena River and the family lived in Cassiar. By 1911 he was a real estate agent.
1901: Real estate salesman Duncan O’Hara and his wife Alberta, their four children (the first three born in USA), and their boarder Charles Ray (1203 Yukon St). Duncan was boarding without his family in Vancouver in 1911, still a real estate agent.

1902: Retirees William and Helena Scrope Barter. William came to Canada from Ireland in 1858, Helena from England in 1870. They lived first in Ontario, then in Winnipeg by 1884 when their fourth child John Shrapnel Barter was born. They were in Victoria from c.1896; William and son William Henry Shrapnel (1873-1964) were listed as farmers, living at 68 Belcher St, in the 1897-1900 directories, then as surveyor’s helpers in the 1901 census. By 1906 the family had moved to Vancouver and Henry and John were both warehousemen for Kelly, Douglas & Co. However William and Helena were back here in Fernwood at 1702 Denman St when they died and when their son, BC Telephone Co employee John signed his attestation papers for the CEF in 1915. Pte. John Shrapnel Barter, 7th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, died on Vimy Ridge, April 28, 1917, and is remembered on the Vimy Memorial. He was the great grandson of Gen. Henry Shrapnel, RA, the inventor of the shells which bear his name.

In 1908 their daughter Louisa Esther Shrapnel “Estele” Barter (b. Orillia, ON, 1878-1943) married prominent and prolific Victoria architect John Charles Malcolm Keith (b. Nairn, SCT, 1858-1940), who designed Christ Church Cathedral (911 Quadra St, Fairfield) and Anglican parish churches around the province, Pemberton Memorial Chapel at the Royal Jubilee Hospital (1900 Fort St, Jubilee), and many fine homes. Estele committed suicide in 1943 by inhaling coal gas.

1904-09: William and Mary Whittaker’s son, Delbert Edmund (b. Providence, RI, 1875-1940) and Mabel Elizabeth (née Davies, b. Shropshire, ENG, 1881-1969) married in St. Barnabas’ Anglican Church (1112 Caledonia Av, Fernwood) in 1904. Delbert was a provincial government assayer and chief analyst. They moved to 1150 Richardson St and lived there until Delbert’s death.

1910-11: City of Victoria bricklayer and foreman John Henry “Harry” and Elizabeth Harriett Owen from Wales and England. Harry came to Canada in 1904 and Elizabeth brought their children here in 1907.
1913: Engineer Gordon Patrick and Lily Heinekey married in Victoria in 1910.
1914: Thomas Milliken, an employee of Rennie & Taylor bakery, 1284-98 Gladstone Av (Fernwood).
1918-20: Thomas Plimley Motors employee Horace or Harry Rutherford.

1927-28: Richard William and Ethel Kate Moore Mowbray. Richard, a tailor with Fyvie Bros at 817 Government St, came to Canada c.1906 and Victoria c.1921.
1929: Arthur and Kate Knapp and their children Marjorie, Stella, William a rancher, and Reginald Arthur, a labourer. Arthur was an insurance agent in Lambourne, Berkshire, England, for 25 years until 1919, when they came to Canada. Richard worked as a watchman at the Empress Hotel, and until 1966 as a gardener at Dockyard.

1931-35: VMD labourer John R. Crabbe (b. ENG 1879) and Mary Jane Adcock (née Naylor, b. ENG 1894). John was a widower, Mary was single and a domestic servant when they married in Victoria in 1930. John was later sergeant-at-arms at the Army & Navy Veterans Club, 512 Fort St. 1938-47: Annie Martin and her husband William (b. ENG, c.1880-1942), until his death. They came to Canada in 1911, and from 1929-42 William was a foreman at VMD. His son-in-law Edwin Crabbe (2130 Ridge Rd, Fernwood) signed his death certificate.

1949-53: Gladys Locke Milligan (née Ross, b. Brooklyn, NY, 1900-1987), widow of Norvil Edward Milligan (b. Ladner, BC, 1893-1945), manager of Sooke Harbour Hotel until he died from an accidental fall.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Fernwood History

• Fernwood Heritage Register


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