Heritage Register
James Bay

334 Michigan Street
(ex-135 Michigan St)
Walkerville (1917)

Built 1891; 1984-85
Heritage-Registered

For: James Leonard & Jessie Stamford

Architect: A. Maxwell Muir

ARCHITECTURE:

This 2½-storey, hip-roofed Queen Anne dwelling has handsome hip-roofed dormers on front and sides. There is a full-height, conical-hip-roofed, octagonal turret on the right front corner; on the left front is a symmetrical, hip-roofed extension. A Palladian window on the upper floor of the extension sits beneath a gabled folly with pierced decoration on the roof. A hipped roof separating the two floors on the front covers a verandah and is supported by four posts. A central pedimented gable on the verandah roof indicates the front door. Under the Palladian window to the left is a one-storey angled bay. There are brackets and corbels in all the eaves. The double-hung windows have Queen Anne glass in the upper sash. Drop siding is used throughout. The verandah details are not accurately reproduced, but the upper part of the turret has been restored, and the impressive chimneys remain. As it is now situated, the house is difficult to view. It was moved back some distance from the street where it originally sat, and a housing development was built around it.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

This house was built for $6,000 for James and Jessie (Steele) Stamford. James came here from England c.1890 and was a plumber, mining engineer and gas engineer. He and partner John Braden operated Braden & Stamford at Fort and Broad Sts in the early 1890s. They carried gas and plumbing fittings, and gas lighting fixtures. James died in 1927 at 77. Jessie, of Glasgow, Scotland, moved to New Westminster in 1941, and died there in 1945 at 87.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

In 1896 William and Sarah Sutton bought the house. William, former sheriff of Bruce County, ON, died that year at 68. Sarah continued living here with her six children. According to her 1905 obituary, she had been ailing for some time, and while her family was upstairs, she hanged herself in the cellar; she was 71. Son William J. Sutton was a well-known geologist and leading mining authority.

Edward and Phoebe (Wood) Foot resided here from 1909-12, when they moved to Comox, BC. They arrived in Canada from England in 1890. Edward, born in Ireland in 1848, was a physician and surgeon. Phoebe, born in Birmingham, England, in 1861, died in Vancouver in 1913 at 53. For the next 30 years, the owner/ residents were Thomas and Sarah (Guest) Jewkes. They arrived here from Dudley, England c.1912. Thomas, a florist, died in 1949 at 85. Sarah lived in the house until her death in 1953 at 84.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register



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