Heritage Register
Oaklands
3149 Cook Street
Oak Crest
Built
1917-22
Heritage-Registered
For: Arthur & Alice Coleman
Designer: Richard G. Rice
Builder: Arthur Coleman
ARCHITECTURE:
Oak Crest, a 1½-storey Arts & Crafts house, is unusual
for Victoria in that it is built almost completely of granite
and brick. The steep front-gabled roof, with wide eaves
and exposed raftertails, is broken on the right side by a
through-the-cornice wall dormer over a square bay. The
dormer has a semi-circular, multi-paned window with a
dressed stone surround and a keystone inset into the brickwork
above. On the left side is a very small shed-roofed
dormer. On the front above a wide brick belt course, two
colours of diapered brick culminate in a lunette attic window
above two multi-paned windows with brick casings.
Ground floor windows are multi-paned-over-one and have
segmental stone arches, as does the recessed front porch.
The porch has its original front door with half-length side
lights and a massive, battered stone pier. The rear has somber
grey brickwork, topped by stucco and half-timbering, and
no stonework. Street widening truncated its gracious front
steps. Opposite, on the brow of the hill at 2906 Cook St (Hillside-Quadra), is Spencer Castle, also built of granite
but on a much grander scale.
Desginer Richard Rice was a draughtsman for E&N Railway, then for BC Department of Public Works. In 1920 he teamed with architect Karl Branwhite Spurgin to design the Saanich War Memorial Health Centre at 4353 West Saanich Rd.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Owners: 1917-36: Arthur John Coleman (b. ENG
1885-1979) came to Canada in the early 1900s, and
worked his way from Ottawa to Victoria on construction
projects, including banks in Winnipeg and University of
Saskatchewan buildings in Saskatoon. When he arrived
here he joined Parfitt Construction, later working with them
on Christ Church Cathedral (1926-29). In the 1950s he did
the stonework on the early-1950s John di Castri-designed
Robin Dunsmuir home at 2979 Seaview Rd in Saanich.
In 1913, Arthur married Alice Rose Hook (1888-1939) of
Glamorganshire, Wales. Arthur laboriously collected all
the granite himself, some from the road allowance, and they
lived in the house while he was building it. In 1936 their
mortgage was foreclosed and they lost the house. After Alice’s death, Arthur married Nellie Carter.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Renters: 1937: Charles Victor Embleton (1892-1964)
and Sybil Ellen (née Richardson, 1888-1961) came to
Canada from England c.1911 and arrived in BC some time
in the 1920s. Charles retired from the RCMP in 1952.
1939-44: Eva and David Richard Campbell (1891-1946),
president of Campbell Surgical Supplies on Fort St.
Owners: 1945-52: Noel A.H. and Carolyn A.E. Hutton;
Noel was still on WWII active service in 1945
when Carolyn moved to Victoria and this house.
The house was auctioned off in 1952-53.
1953-
63: Arthur Geydon Hemming (b. Leamington, ENG
1901-1963) and Beatrice Ethel (née Harris, b. Pietersburg,
South Africa c.1903) married in Victoria in 1925
at St. Barnabas Anglican Church (1112 Caledonia Av,
Fernwood). Arthur came to Canada with his family
c.1907, and to Alberni in 1909. He had a sawmill there
until it was lost in a fire c.1930. He and Beatrice moved
to Victoria where he worked as a stationary engineer
with Crowe Gonnason Lumber Co (3010 Quadra St,
Hillside-Quadra) and then the Department of National
Defense. They moved to Mill Bay in mid-1963, just six
weeks before his death by drowning during a boating
trip off the Mill Bay shore.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• Map of Victoria Heritage Register Properties
• Oaklands History
• Oaklands Heritage Register
• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Three: Rockland, Burnside, Harris Green,
Hillside-Quadra,
North Park & Oaklands
