Heritage Register
Gonzales

121 Wildwood Street

Built 1913
Heritage-Designated 2002

For: Ernest Arkles, Fred Smith & John Reid

Builders: Ernest Arkles, Fred Smith & possibly John Reid

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a single-storey, front-gabled, shingle-sided Craftsman Bungalow with a partial-width gabled entry porch at the left front and the characteristic triangular knee braces in the gables and pointed exposed rafter tails under the eaves. The porch has heavy square supports on battered shingled piers and half-timbering in the gable, and has been glassed in. On the right side is a cantilevered bay window with a gabled roof; on the left a gable over two windows.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

This residence was built by carpenters Ernest Arkles, Fred Smith, and possibly John T. Reid, in May and June 1913, for $2,900.

The house quickly sold to W. Arthur Weed, for whom no occupation was listed in City Directories. By 1918 it was owned by Sarah Emma Martha and Harry Skuce, a butcher and the proprietor of the Pacific Market at 902 Government St, owned by P. Burns & Co.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Widow Mary Charlotte Pearse (Roper, 1868-1943) lived here in the 1920s. Born at Lac La Hache, BC, Mary married Ernest Theodore William Pearse (1860-1915) in Kamloops in 1885. Born in England, Ernest came to Victoria as a young man to join his uncle Benjamin W. Pearse, surveyor-general of BC. He joined the government civil service in 1888, and remained in the Kamloops area, where he died of stomach cancer in 1915. Their son Walter Josiah Pearse was a Rhodes scholar who died at Vimy Ridge in 1917. Mary came to Victoria in 1918, and was living at 1624 Monterey Av in Oak Bay when she died.

There were a number of occupants in this house during the 1930s. W.C. Bryan was here in 1931, followed by Archibald R. Delong, the manager of National Cash Register in 1932. From 1933-36, William S. and Davine Palmer lived here. William was an inspector and later the acting manager of the Canadian Farm Loan Board. The house was vacant in 1937.

Thomas (1898-1979) and Mabel Catherine (Hall, 1896-1970) Halbert lived here c.1939-41. Thomas was born in Montreal, QC and Mabel in Dartford, Kent, England. Thomas represented the Imperial Tobacco Co during his life-time career.

Naval Lieut-Comm Brian MacDermott (1895-1955) and Reta Rachel (Jones) Lillie bought this house when they came to Victoria about 1943. Brian was a marine engineer born in Bangkok, Thailand, who came to BC from Hong Kong in 1920. He married Vancouver native Reta Jones in 1927 and they resided in North Vancouver for a number of years. Reta sold the house in 1957.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Gonzales History

• Gonzales Heritage Register


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