Heritage Register
James Bay

637 Niagara Street

Built 1911
Heritage-Registered

For: William Dunford & Son, & Joseph W. Taylor

Designer: George V. Bishop
Builder: William Dunford & Son

ARCHITECTURE:

This is the third in a row of Dunford & Son Craftsman Arts & Crafts Bungalows, including 633 and 629 Niagara St. Unlike the other two, this porch is still open, but the house is covered in asbestos siding. This 1½-storey, front-gabled house has a gabled, cantilevered, shallow box bay on the left front, and a hip-roofed porch on the right; the porch continues around the right side of the house to the front entrance. There is a small gabled dormer to the rear of the porch roof, and two gabled extensions on the rear of the house, one over the back porch. The front porch has tripled posts at the corners on battered piers, and square balusters.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1911-38: Mary (née Robson, c.1851-1927), widow of Thomas Blakeway, and her four daughters and three sons came to Victoria from Chesley, ON. Four of her offspring lived here: Emma, John, Marie, and Mary Adeline. John moved to Winnipeg, but lived in Vancouver from 1939 until his death in 1954. Mary Adeline, a clerk for Weiler Bros, lived in the house until c.1924. She moved to Toronto and worked as a silver buyer for a department store, and back to Vancouver in 1952 where she died in 1957 at 80. Emma, born in 1888, was employed as a housekeeper. She died in

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1937. Marie left the house shortly after. She was an HBC salesclerk for many years and died in 1967 at 87.

1942-50: Earle and Inez Lehman lived in Vancouver in the late 1950s. Inez Wilson was born in Lethbridge, AB, and worked as a secretary for six years. She died in 1970 at 64. Earle died in Burnaby in 1980 at 75.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register



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