Heritage Register
Rockland

1195 Fort Street (ex-21 Cadboro Bay Rd)

Built 1903
Heritage-Designated 1977

For: Effie & Galena Kilpatrick

Architects: Thomas Hooper & C. Elwood Watkins

ARCHITECTURE:

Early Edwardian times were marked by a return to classical styles and more massive and horizontal proportions, nicely illustrated in this early example of a Foursquare house. Although it is not a small building, its height is de-emphasized by the horizontality of the shallow bellcast hipped roof, the broad bands of windows on the two floors of the façade, and the full-width porch. Classical Revival elements are the symmetry of the façade, the pedimented entry portico, the dentilled cornices, and the Tuscan columns on both floors. Originally there was a small second-storey balcony that has had its leaded-glass windows removed and been glassed in. The house is clad in double-bevelled drop siding.

The house was gutted by fire in 1999. Owners Dr. Robert Ruzicka and Dr. Frank Van Gyn, both dentists, made the decision to restore it, and won a Hallmark Heritage Society Award for their efforts.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1903-12: Effie Galena Lowe (b. Nanaimo, BC 1879-1911) in 1895 married Robert Kilpatrick (b. Sydney Mines, Cape Breton, NS 1860-1902), a livery stable keeper. He died of stomach cancer at 41 leaving Effie with three small children. The house was built shortly after his death. In 1906 she married barrister James Alan “Todd” Aikman (1871-1925). Called to the bar in 1893, Aikman practiced throughout BC and partnered with Cecil Knox Courteney in 1908 and John H. Austin in 1912. He also held the office of Registrar-General of Titles for BC. Effie took her own life in 1911 and is buried in Ross Bay Cemetery.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Tenants: 1912-13: Col. Henry C. Rogers had a distinguished career in the Canadian Army, then was Postmaster of Peterborough, ON, for 36 years. He retired to Victoria, then Shawnigan Lake where he died in 1914.
1915-17: Thomas A. Johnston, a commercial broker.
1917- 21: John Bartholomew (1853-1935) and Margaret (née Hogg 1861-1957) and offspring, John Stuart (1899-1923), Muriel Hilda (1894-1976) and Herbert “Victor” (1887- 1969). John Sr. was a carpenter when he came to Victoria in 1910; then an auctioneer and proprietor of Select Auction Rooms; then owner of J. Bartholomew & Sons Home Furniture [Antiques]. Victor was a Royal Flying Corps mechanic during WWI, then worked in the business with Bartholomew & Murdoch Antiques at 1116 Fort St.
1922-25: John A. Phillips, janitor then engineer at the Stobart Building.

1927-28: The house was converted to the five-unit Marylyn (Marlyn, Marilyn) Apartments. Many of the tenants were single or widowed women.

1928-34: May Ethel Cherry (née Cottle, b. London, ENG 1887-1968) managed this property, then other Rockland conversions: 1385 Manor Rd, 1320 Rockland Av, 834 Pemberton Rd and 1337 Rockland Av. Her husband Harry Scott Cherry (1882-1958), a warehouse foreman with Marshall Wells in Edmonton, didn’t come here until 1945. May died in the Matson Lodge, Esquimalt.

1929-31: Maj. Samuel Robinson (b. IRL 1853-1944) served as an Army Veterinary Surgeon. In 1890 he and his wife Edith Mary (née Hatton, b. IRL 1852-1950) immigrated to Brandon, MB, where Samuel had a veterinary practice. They retired to Victoria.

1929-34: Helen “Ruth” Humphrey (1898-1984) earned an Honours BA in English from Oxford in 1926, and taught at Victoria College from 1927-45. She befriended Emily Carr and, seeing potential in her writing, encouraged her to write when ill health prevented her from travelling, which was a major source of inspiration for her artwork. Ruth taught English at UBC from 1945-63. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Mount Allison University in 1977. 1935-43: Annie Sansbury King (née Wootton, b. Victoria 1861-1943) was the daughter of Capt. Henry Wootton and his wife Eliza, who arrived in Victoria on the Labouchere in 1859 (1209 Yukon St, Fernwood). Annie was educated at Angela College (923 Burdett St, Fairfield). In 1881 she married Elliot Hammond King (c1861-1901), real estate agent and accountant, the son of Capt. Edward H. King (1832-1861). Elliot died in the Provincial Asylum, New Westminster, of paresis.

1936-40: Miss Jean Rogers Dean Gilley (b. New Westminster, 1907-1956) was a BC government clerk, and a BC Dept of Health statistician when she died in Vancouver.

1936-52: Elizabeth Ann Tomalin (née Wallis, b. Yorkshire, ENG 1871-1952) came to Deloraine, MB, with her husband Dr. William John Clarkson Cheslyn Tomalin (1859-1922) in 1889, moving to Victoria in 1912. Dr. Tomalin specialized in diseases of women and children. His health suffered during the Spanish Influenza epidemic (1918-1920) and he died of heart problems. Elizabeth moved from Linden Av to Marylyn Apts until her death. Her son Harold lived at 1385 Manor Rd, Rockland, from 1936-51.

1937-47: Miss Margaret Fanny McAdam (b. Manchester, ENG 1882-1947), came to Victoria in the 1920s.

1941-68: Widow Jane Harvey (née Sparkes, b. Glasgow, SCT 1878-1968) came to Canada with her husband John Horden Harvey (b. Cork, IRL 1879-1938). He worked for the Egyptian government for 20 years, and in Victoria in the BC Coast Steamship Services stores department.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Map of Victoria's Heritage Register Properties

• Rockland History

• Rockland Heritage Register


• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Three: Rockland, Burnside, Harris Green,
Hillside-Quadra, North Park & Oaklands