Heritage Register
Hillside-Quadra

2736 Fifth Street

Built 1912
Heritage-Designated 2003

For: Laura & Charles Pearson

ARCHITECTURE:

This example of Edwardian Vernacular Arts & Crafts has several somewhat unusual features, including wall dormers on each side which break the roofline. An inset corner front porch extends out from the front wall, protected by a gabled roof which repeats the half-timbering and roughcast stucco of the main gable, along with the truncated finial and smaller versions of the knee or gallows brackets. The porch roof is supported by sturdy square posts on tapered stone piers, with shingled low swooping balustrades. The porch walls are a continuation of the bevelled siding on the main floor walls down to a low water table. There are box bays on the front and sides.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1912-50: Charles Edward Pearson and Laura (née Schlawin) came to Victoria from Minnesota c.1905. Charles worked for the Shawnigan Lake Lumber Company for 27 years before establishing the Victoria Retail Lumber Yard. He operated this business until his death in 1939 at 66, at which point his sons, Herbert and Milford, and his wife took over thebusiness. Laura formed a partnership with Lyle Lyon Pelland, and operated the business for 10 years until she died in 1950 at 74.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1960-2003: John and Helen Hillyer moved to Victoria from near Edmonton, AB, in 1955. John, a self-employed upholsterer, died at 65 in 1983. Helen had worked for her family’s lumber company in Stoney Plain, AB, before her marriage, then became a homemaker. She was active in Hope Lutheran Church. She was very active in the Girl Guide movement for many years, ran a Brownie Pack, and still, at 83 in 2006, was involved in helping to organize Guide camps. In 2002 daughter Ann and her partner Bruce Wilkin bought the property from her mother, restored the house, then strata-titled the property. In exchange for designating the house heritage, they were permitted by the City to build two townhouses in sympathetic style at the rear of the property.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Map of Victoria Heritage Register Properties

• Hillside-Quadra History

• Hillside-Quadra Heritage Register

• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Three: Rockland, Burnside, Harris Green,
Hillside-Quadra, North Park & Oaklands