Heritage Register
James Bay

333 Simcoe Street

Built 1912
Heritage-Designated 1996

For: James Atkins

Architect: Charles Elwood Watkins
Builder: James Atkins

ARCHITECTURE:

This two-storey, hip-roofed, Edwardian Foursquare house has two two-storey, cantivered bays: the box bay on the right side is very shallow and tucked under the eaves; the gabled, through-the-roof box bay on the left side sits over a shallow angled bay. The gable is supported on Arts & Crafts knee brackets. On the upper front is a wide, shallow, under-the-eaves, bracketed box bay. On the main floor to the right is a recessed corner front porch accessed by side-facing steps. It has heavy, square corner posts on a solid balustrade. The main floor is clad in double-bevelled siding, with stucco and half-timbering on the upper floor and now on the basement. There are two corbelled brick chimneys.

Contractor and builder James Atkins (b. Cornwall, ENG 1864-1921) came to BC in 1885. He built 327 Simcoe St in 1911, 333 and 329 Simcoe in 1912. James was living in 329 when he married Mary Jane King (b. Ontario 1880-1961) in 1915. Mary Jane came to Victoria in 1912. They moved to 175 Bushby St in Fairfield c.1918. In 1921, James fell and fractured his spine, dying six months later.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1914: The first known resident was William T. Barfield, a painter.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

c.1917-25: widow Agnes Larrigan (née Ward b. Winnipeg, MN 1882-1956) came to Victoria in 1889 with her parents, John and Mary Ward from Newcastle upon Tyne, ENG in 1879. Agnes, an apprentice milliner, married George Larrigan, a musician from Edinburgh, in 1904. He died in 1914 of appendicitis.

1926-c.1930: Sidney Grimmond (b. ENG c.1874-1946) and Elizabeth (b. Dublin, IRL c.1879-1955) came to BC in 1906. Sidney was a hotel proprietor, then a baker. He served with the 4th Divisional Train, CEF, during WWI.

1931-49: John Anderson (b. Finland 1882-1949) and Agnes (née Crawford, b. Pittsburgh, PA 1872-1947) came to Victoria c.1920. John was a rigger in shipbuilding until retiring in 1945.

1949-64: Mary McNeill, a box maker, married James Dryburgh (c.1903-1964), a paper maker, in 1925. James was later employed as a ship’s fitter at Yarrows Shipyard in the early 1940s.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register

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