Heritage Register
James Bay

117-19 South Turner Street
(ex-22 South Turner St)

Built 1892-93
Heritage-Designated 1989

For: Mary Walker

ARCHITECTURE:

This two-storey, hip-roofed, Italianate house is larger and more elaborate than 106 and 116 across the street, but similar to 102. It has two-storey, pediment-gabled box bays, one on the right side of the house and one on the right of the front façade; the upper and lower bays are separated by pent roofs clad in diamond-shaped shingles. A flat-topped, hipped roof, similarly shingled, sits over the porch which is to the left of the front bay. The porch has two turned posts with brackets and two similar pilasters. There are rectangular and ovoid panels in the friezes, and sandwich brackets under all the eaves. Original two-over-two, double-hung sashes survive. There are now two panelled front entrance doors, as the house was duplexed in 1923. The rear has a full, two-storey addition clad in wide bevelled siding, in contrast to the original drop siding on the rest of the house. There is a central corbelled chimney.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Owner: 1892-1905: Mary Walker (b. NB c.1863-1920) had this house plumbed in 1897, but never lived in it. She came to BC in 1885 and was on Rae St in the early 1890s. She never married, and was superintendent of the Protestant Orphanage for several years. She left Victoria in 1905 and returned by 1913.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Tenants: 1894-1900: William Burns, BA, was a teacher, then a school inspector. He moved to Vancouver, where, in 1924, the Native Sons of BC honoured him for his years of service to the education system, and he was declared Vancouver’s Good Citizen. His recommendations for BC’s education system included allowing children to play on inner city school grounds at the end of the day, rather than on the streets, and encouraging teachers and students to become comrades rather than antagonists. William valued the role of older generations in the education of young people, particularly in rural districts.

1900-04: Robert Riddell (b. Perth, ON c.1865-1947) and Hester (née McKee, b. Langley, BC c.1874-1958). Robert, a bookkeeper, moved to BC in 1890. The couple moved to Langley where Robert was a livestock feed salesman for five years.

1905-11: Herbert and Henrietta Cuthbert; Herbert was an auctioneer, then a realtor.

1917-21: Margaret Mary (née Swale, b. Yorks, ENG c.1860-1941) and Reginald Scarborough (b. Norwich, ENG c.1856-1944), a corn merchant until c.1900. They retired to Victoria c.1908.

1923-25: Donald Fraser Sturrock (b. Dundee, SCT 1886-1963) and Phyllis Ethel (née Taylor, b. Shepperton, ENG 1902-1984) married in Victoria in 1921. Don was district supervisor for London Life Insurance Co. They moved to Vancouver.

1926-53: Herbert Panting (b. Oxfordshire, ENG, 1882-1947) and Ruth (née Pinnock, b. ENG 1882-1965) came to Victoria in 1910. Herbert was a plasterer’s helper for 25 years. Ruth sold the house after his death and moved to Metchosin, BC, to live with her children.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register



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