Heritage Register
Gonzales

1007 Amphion Street

Built 1913
Heritage-Registered

For: Horace & Mildred Hamlet

Builder: Modern Homes Ltd

ARCHITECTURE:

This modest Craftsman bungalow, and its two adjacent neighbours (1003 and 1011 Amphion), were built on a speculative basis by Modern Homes Ltd. These are typical of the type of house being built at the time, to accommodate newly prospering residents. Often this type of house was built to standard plans; the plans for this house were Modern Homes Plan #11.

The house cost $3,200 to build, slightly less than its two sisters. It has a jerkinhead gable over a front-facing gabled extension. Craftsman elements include heavy exposed beams, complex columns, and unusual bargeboard decoration. Part of the full-width front porch has a shed roof.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Horace Hamlet (1881-1965) and Mildred Alexia Ensor Sweet (1887-1976) were married in 1909 at St. James Church by the bride’s father, the Rev. John Hales S. Sweet. The couple took the Princess Charlotte to Seattle, then the steamer President to San Francisco where they lived for several years. They had returned to Victoria by 1913 and bought this house. Horace, who was born in Derby, England and came initially to New Westminster, worked as a machinist at the Vancouver Island Motor Co. He and Mildred were still living here when he died. Mildred was born in Newcastle, NB, and moved to Victoria with her family when she was eight.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Gonzales History

• Gonzales Heritage Register


• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee