Heritage Register
Gonzales

117 Wildwood Street

Built 1912
Heritage-Designated 1992

For: Frank Murphy & A.H. Smith

Designer: W.M. Smith

ARCHITECTURE:

This 1½-storey Edwardian Vernacular Arts & Crafts residence has a surprising number of decorative features. The front-facing gable and through-the-roof side gables feature elaborate half-timbering. Heavy roof overhangs have exposed rafter-tails and chunky brackets. A box bay seems to float off the right front corner, with brackets and gable matching the main roof. An art-glass piano window on the front has a Macintosh-style rose design. The front porch was originally open. (Note changes in gable.) According to the building permit, the house cost $3,700.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Soon after the property was built, it was sold in quick succession to Georgina Sackville, and then to Robert Cutsworth Brumpton in 1913. Brumpton ran a dry goods and gentlemen’s furnishings business known as R.C. Brumpton. The Brumptons never actually lived at this residence – their principal home was at 1282 Richardson, a similar style of house. In 1914 the Brumptons moved to Red Deer, AB, where Robert died in 1917 of appendicitis at 56. His family retained the property until 1925.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

According to City Directories, the house was vacant until 1918, when BC Tel Co operator Agnes Simpson and her four children moved in as renters. George E. Keen rented this house in 1921. He was manager of the Tourist Drive Yourself Auto Livery on Yates St.

Capt Neville Edward Fairweather (1878-1966) and his wife Dorothy (Benson, 1887-1970) occupied this house in the mid-1920s. The Fairweathers came to Victoria in 1910 after Neville retired from the army. Born in India and raised in Britain, Neville was one of nine children born to Annette Margaret Dupré (Thorp) and James Fairweather (1828-1917), deputy surgeon-general of the Indian Medical Service. His brother Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) was a respected Australian painter.

The Hawke family bought this house in the late 1920s and lived here until about 1941. Leonard Hawke was an E&N Railway fireman born in Victoria. In 1914 he married Boston-native Mildred May Orr. By 1937, Mildred was living on her own in this house; Leonard’s death date is unknown.
By 1943 David and Helen Caird were living here. David worked at the VMD. Donald and Elinor Branter bought this house in 1946, and in 1949 retired couple Purcell and Hazel Doncaster were the owners.

Widow Myrtle Janette Morgan (Wilson, 1891-1973) bought the house in 1951 and lived here until 1957. Born in Reston, MB, Myrtle attended the Manitoba Medical University before moving to BC in 1918. She married Herbert Clifford Morgan (1886-1933) in Vancouver in 1919. Myrtle came to Victoria in 1950.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Gonzales History

• Gonzales Heritage Register


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