Heritage Register
Rockland

1091 Joan Crescent

Built 1914
Heritage-Registered

For: Henry & Nora Munday

Designer/Builder: Henry E. Munday

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a 2-storey, cross-gabled Craftsman house with finials and brackets in the gables and open eaves with exposed raftertails. The upper storey is half-timbered stucco, the lower shingle siding. There is a recessed left front ground-floor porch with a granite wall and tapered supports, and square cantilevered shingled bays on the front and both sides (two storeys high on the right). Most windows are double-hung sashes, many with horns. There is a massive granite chimney on the left side.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

First owners Henry Edwin (b. London, ENG 1863-1954) and Nora (b. Gloucestershire, ENG 1870-1935) Munday lived here until 1930. They had lived at 517 Michigan St, James Bay from 1891-1900. Born in London, England, Henry came to Victoria in 1889. In 1892 he married Nora Woodward, who came from Gloucestershire, England, in 1890. Henry began as a contractor, and he was involved in the construction of BC’s Parliament Buildings and Work Point Barracks, but was forced to suspend his business because of a smallpox scare. He headed for the Klondike in the 1890s as a labourer packing food and supplies for miners. Upon his return to Victoria in 1899 he entered the shoe business, eventually opening four stores, including Munday’s Fine Shoes, which finally closed its doors in the 1990s. Henry and Nora moved to 1035 Pakington St, Fairfield in 1931, where they lived until their deaths.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

By 1933, Ethel Gordon (née Gibson) and Arthur Robert Charles Morton, a Victoria City draftsman, were the occupants. They married in Esquimalt in 1914 and lived here until c.1940. Widows Louise Twyman and Florence Patton lived here in 1943 and 1946, respectively.

By 1949 this house was the Crescent Guest House, under proprietors Ivan Wesley (1894-1963) and Eva (Chiko, 1903-1988) Hanchard. They lived here until the mid-1950s. Ivan came to Canada from Russia in 1914. They retired from innkeeping in 1962 to Osoyoos, BC.

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