Heritage Register
James Bay

162 Medana Street
Tregarthen (1915)

Built 1909
Heritage-Designated 2000

For: John LeFevre

Builder: John LeFevre

ARCHITECTURE:

This bellcast, hip-roofed Vernacular Bungalow has three dormers: bellcast, hip-roofed on the front, gabled on the right side, and shed-roofed on the rear. There is a cantilevered, angled bay on the left side of the house. The centrally-located front steps lead to an inset porch with two single and a triplet of chamfered posts and a solid balustrade with a panel of sawn balusters. A bracketed, cutaway angled bay is to the left of the porch. The house is clad in double-bevelled siding, the foundation is concrete, and the house retains its corbelled brick chimney. The concrete block retaining wall around the front garden and the period garage remain.
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ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

John Lefevre was a builder until his retirement in 1939. He was born in England in 1857, married widow Alice Marshe in 1913, and died in Victoria in 1942 at 84.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

John sold the property to Mary Ann Brown, who owned it as rental property until 1914. William and Euphemia “Effie” Sandy rented in 1912-13. William worked for Imperial Realty Co but was drafted into the army in 1914. In 1928, William and Effie were divorced. Effie ran the Zetland Tea Rooms at 647 Fort St from c.1914 until the early 1940s. (26 Paddon St, James Bay)

In 1915, the owners were William Hartley and Violet (Woodhouse) Patterson. William was an architect from Holywood, Ireland. He and Violet married in 1914.

By 1933 James Henry and Clara Henrietta (Baker) Hunter lived here. They were married in 1893. James was born in Quebec in 1861, moved to Victoria in 1891, and was a police officer for 35 years until he retired in 1934. He died in 1941 at 79. Clara was born in Victoria in 1873 to Victoria pioneers George and Clara Baker. Clara Hunter lived in the house until her death in 1946 at 73.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register



• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Two: James Bay