Heritage Register
James Bay

427 Parry Street
(relocated from 522 Simcoe St in 1980)
Beckley Cottage

Built 1901
Heritage-Designated 1981

For: Mary Ann & Richard Jackson

ARCHITECTURE:

This 1½-storey, hip-roofed Queen Anne cottage has gables on the front and right side. The original hipped-roof on the right side has been altered to a pedimented gable which extends over an original bracketed, angled bay, now cantilevered. A faux Palladian window with a central sash between two sunburst panels sits on a denticulated stringcourse in the right front gable. The gable, which has decorative bargeboards with Art Nouveau cutouts and sunbursts in the apex, surmounts a bracketed, cutaway, angled bay. The ogee brackets on both bays have acorn drop finials. Front facing steps to the left of the bay have a sloped, solid balustrade leading to a shed-roofed porch. Arches between the three turned porch posts and one pilaster support turned spindles in the frieze; there are turned balusters in the balustrade. There is a wide shed-roofed dormer addition at the rear to the left side of the hipped roof.
The gables and foundation are shingled, the front gable with fish-scale design; the front bay is clad in diagonal V-joint T&G and the body of the house in double-bevelled siding. The house was built for $1,300. In 1980 the Hallmark Society moved Beckley Cottage from 522 Simcoe St and restored it.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Beckley Cottage was built for Mary Ann and Richard Jackson, who owned it until 1905. Richard Jackson was born in Victoria in 1873, Mary Ann White in 1878, and they married in 1898. Richard’s father, Dr. William Jackson, a physician at the Marine Hospital in Victoria West, opened a pharmacy on Government St. After he died in 1890, Richard’s brothers, William Jr. and Frederick (619 Avalon Rd, James Bay) took over the business.

Richard never took to the family business, and worked for A.B. Gray & Co, wholesale drygoods and liquor merchants, for 4 years until 1893. He then worked as bookkeeper and accountant for various firms until 1901, when he became manager of the fire insurance department of BC Land & Investment Agency, where he remained until he retired in 1929. He was a member of the AOUW and Native Sons of BC. Richard was involved in community athletics programs, and a member of the Victoria Gun Club and Royal Victoria Yacht Club. He was living in Deep Cove, North Saanich at the time of his death in 1945 at 72.

Mary Ann’s mother Jessie White’s parents were John and Jessie Irvine, who came to Fort Victoria in 1851 on the Tory as HBC servants, worked at Craigflower Farm, then in 1862 bought 300 acres in Gordon Head which they called Rose Bank Farm. Mary Ann’s father, William White came to Canada as a baby in 1853. Mary Ann left Victoria for Vancouver and died there in 1968 at 89.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Eleanor and Sydney Child bought this house in 1906 and lived here until c.1935. Sydney was born in Sooke, BC, in 1879, Eleanor in Victoria in 1883. Sydney was raised on an East Sooke ranch owned by Robert Edwin Jackson. Sydney was educated in East Sooke, then at Corrig College in James Bay. He was admitted to the BC bar in 1903 at 22, and married Eleanor Fawcett in 1906. Sydney first worked at the law firm of Drake, Jackson and Helmcken, Robert Edwin Jackson being the middle partner. Sydney eventually established his own law firm, which he operated until he died. He was secretary of the Victoria Bar Association, and an activist in child welfare through work with Family and Children’s Service. He died in 1957 at 77, Eleanor in 1955 at 86.

From 1940-45, Robert Bryce, retired, lived here. From 1946-c.1950, Anna (Stetton) Crofts, widow of Percy, was resident. Born in Fossen, MN, in 1897, she lived in Camrose, AB, before moving here in 1944. She died in 1974 at 77. Gordon, a City pipelayer, and Elizabeth Crofts lived here from 1950-c.1960.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register



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