Heritage Register
Gonzales

160 Beechwood Avenue

Built 1910; 1912
Heritage-Designated 1993

For: McPherson & Fullerton Bros;
Charles & Sarah Gibbons

Architect: Samuel Maclure

ARCHITECTURE:

The original portion of this house (built in 1910) is a stuccoed 1½ -storey rectangular “Maclure bungalow” (see 1502 Regents Pl, Rockland), with a steep hipped roof and three hipped dormers with flanking half-timbered panels. The front (east) dormer on the long axis is quite wide (about half the width of the house) with a three-part window, a fixed-sash upper diamond pane over a solid pane flanked by two double-hung sashes. The right (north) dormer has a double-sash window; the left (south) dormer (which has a chimney projecting oddly from its roof) has an entry to a second-storey sundeck over a cantilevered square bay (probably later additions).

In 1912 Maclure designed a 2-storey hipped roof addition with a 2-storey square bay on its south face and half-timbering on its upper storey on the left-rear corner of the house, allowing for the construction of the sundeck in the angle of the two wings. What presently appears to be the major entrance is on the south side through an inset porch under the sundeck approached by a simple wooden stairway; the original entry on the east façade is an inset glassed-in porch approached by a masonry staircase at right angles to the house.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

It was plumbed in 1910 for developers Thomas Shanks McPherson & Fullerton Brothers (Herbert M). The Gibbons purchased this speculative home, had Maclure design the 1912 addition, and lived here until 1917. Charlie Harrison Gibbons (1868-1931) married Agnes “Sarah” Coleman (1870-1964) in 1890, but they divorced in 1926. Her parents, Elizabeth Bignell and George Elijah Coleman, ran the Prince of Wales Hotel at the corner of Government and Cormorant Sts.

Charles Gibbons was a well-known Victoria newspaper editor. Born in St. Thomas, ON, he came to BC in 1889. He began his career as a reporter, and eventually became editor of the Victoria Daily Colonist. During his lengthy and varied career, he served as secretary to the Indian Land Commission and the Legislative Committee, covered the Russian-Japanese War for the New York Herald and wrote two books. During WWI he served overseas with the Canadian Forestry Corps, and after the war he lived in Toronto where he continued his career in journalism. Charles returned to Victoria in 1926.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

The house was put up for sale soon after, and advertised at $6,500. It was described as a “large house; nine rooms, with one very large reception room; hardwood floors, cement basement and furnace; Situated on two lots with garage.” By 1929, Cuthbert Fleming Griffin (1893-1955) and his wife Jessie (Monckman, 1892-1971) were living here. They remained until the early 1930s with several other tenants. The Griffins were born in England and came to BC in 1920. Cuthbert was a wireless operator with the CPR for many years and retired in 1941.

Charles Havelock (1887-1971) and Agnes Gillies (Rutherford, 1887-1940) Greene lived here in the late 1930s. Charles was a shoe salesman. Agnes was born in Bruce County, ON, and Charles in Bath, NB. They lived and worked in Saskatchewan for many years before coming to Victoria in 1921. Charles left the house after Agnes died in 1940, and he married Laura Ann Donaghy Martin (1886-1970) at some point.

Mrs Phyllis McIntyre lived here in 1941, and by 1943 Miss Alma B. Sanders owned the house and operated it as a rooming house. She owned it until 1946. Soffonias Thorkelsson, retired, bought this property in 1948 and converted it to apartments.