Heritage Register
James Bay

35 San Jose Avenue
(ex-12; 39 San Juan Av)

Built 1891
Heritage-Designated 2018

For: Charles & Johanna Prescott

Builder: Charles Austen Prescott

ARCHITECTURE:

This one-storey, hip-roofed, symmetrical Queen Anne Cottage has a prominent pediment-gabled dormer on the front, and paired eaves brackets on all the chamfered corner boards. There is a pediment-gabled box bay on the right side towards the rear; a shed-roofed porch beyond the bay is attached to a hip-roofed extension. Arched corner brackets with drop finials decorate pediment-gabled, angled bays on either side of the small front porch. Front-facing steps lead to the shed-roofed porch, which has tapered posts and pilasters, spindles in the frieze and unusual sandwich brackets above the posts. The front gables are shingled in fishscale and dogtooth designs, the body is clad in drop siding and the basement in bevelled siding.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1891-1920: Johanna (née Erskine, b. Perth, ON 1862-1923) and carpenter Charles Prescott (b. Odessa, ON 1860-1940), who married in Northumberland Co, ON in 1879, moved here in 1890.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1921-c.29: Son Claude Prescott (b. Victoria 1892-1951) and wife Olive (née Wilby, b. Victoria 1898-1977), sister of Ethel (231 St. Andrews St, James Bay). Claude, also a carpenter, served overseas in WWI, and married Olive in 1919. From 1941, Claude ran the Strawberry Vale grocery store in Saanich until his death. He was a member of Columbia Lodge No.1, AF&AM, and Victoria Community Grocers’ Association.

1930s: John Newall (b. Cumberland, ENG c.1903-1970) and Eileen (née Maggs, b. mining town of Bankhead, AB c.1906-1970). Eileen came to BC in 1923 and John in 1927, when they married. He was a fireman, and later, fire chief.

1939-46: Otto Klomp (c.1877-1960) and Elizabeth (née Tobar c.1880-1967) were born in Holland, pioneered in Fort Fraser, BC, in 1912 and came here c.1935. Otto retired from CNR maintenance in the early 1940s.

1947-53: Leland and Bernice Flach. Leland was a taxi driver with Northwestern in the late 1940s, then a route supervisor for McGavin Taxi.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register



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