Heritage Register
Rockland
855 Pemberton Road
The Lodge
Built
1906-07; 1931
Heritage-Registered
For: Alfred & Ada Flumerfelt; Susan Hughes
Architect: William D'Oyly Rochfort, attributed (1906)
ARCHITECTURE:
In the 2007 edition of This Old House 3, it was stated
that this house was built in 1931. It is now known that
The Lodge, originally built as a coachman’s house in
1906-07, was added to and altered in 1931 for $3,100.
This stuccoed, 1½-storey, Norman Revival-style house
has a prominent, conical-roofed two-storey tower with
narrow leaded windows and a weather vane. The main
side-gabled roof has two gabled dormers to the right and
one to the left of the tower. The round-arched, recessed
entrance is immediately to the left of the tower; there is
a shallow, hip-roofed, rectangular extension on the left
side. Two large multi-lights-over-single-paned windows
have shutters with a pierced fleur-de-lis motif. A pair of
matching windows on the far right do not have shutters.
The chimneys are stuccoed and have chimney pots.
Architect W.D. Rochfort signed the 1906 plumbing permit,
so he may have designed the original house.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Owners 1906-30: Alfred Cornelius Flumerfelt (906
Pemberton Rd) and Ada Annie (née Kilvington, 1857-1924) in 1896 built Ruhebuhne “Resthaven,” designed by
Samuel Maclure; its address was 835 Pemberton Rd after
1907. In 1906-07 they built The Lodge for their coachman
on the NW corner of their property; its address was 855
Pemberton Rd.
Tenants: 1908-11: Scottish-born Benjamin
Oswald Taylor (c.1832-1912) and Jane/Jeanie (née Kerr)
lived at The Lodge until Ben’s retirement as coachman
in 1911 at 78. They then lived in Chemainus with their
daughter Jessie, who married Master Mariner William
Gillen in 1908.
1911-26: Allen Ernest Mitchell (b. Dorking,
Surrey, ENG c.1876-1931) married Margery Sherburn (b.
ENG c.1887) in Victoria in 1911, and they lived here while
Allen was Mr. Flumerfelt’s chauffeur.
1928-30: The highly
decorated Col. Hugh MacIntyre Urquhart (1880-1950) of
the Canadian Scottish Regiment (CSR) rented the house
with his sister Elizabeth (1882-1968). After WWI Urquhart
was Additional Aide-de-Camp to King George V. While
in this house, Urquhart was working on his history of the
regiment, which he published in 1932. He also wrote the
first full-length biography of Gen. Sir Arthur Currie (1114
Arthur Currie Ln, Vic West). The Urquharts lived at 1008
Carberry Gardens, Rockland, in 1931-38, and later at 608
Trutch St, Fairfield.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1931-32: After A.C. Flumerfelt’s death in 1930, the
parcel of land on which The Lodge stood was hived off
from the larger property and sold to Mrs. Sarah Harriet
Hughes. She lived in the house for a year. The house was
then rented out.
1933-34: Ernest lan Walter Jardine (b.
Egremont, ENG 1883-1969) and Olga Holen Marie (née
Gloy, b. Dunedin, NZ 1900) married in Victoria in 1929.
When they married, Olga was a university lecturer. Ernest
was an electrical engineer; he retired in 1952 as Chief
Engineer of BC Public Utilities Commission. 1937: Mrs
Grace Randolph Pooley (née Higbee, b. Cincinnati, OH
1866-1937) came to Victoria with her husband, Edward
Foster Pooley, in 1927 (1337 Rockland Av).
1938-42: Wallace Hunter McMillan (b. Winnipeg
1882-1968) and Gertrude Orna (née Seaman b. Kansas
City, MO 1890-1977) moved here from Winnipeg. Wallace
was an active member of the Victoria Gun Club, founder of
the Coho Club in 1936, and a president of the Tyee Club.
1943-47: Retired sawmill operator John Prince Myers (b.
Sussex, NB 1881-1960) and Lyla Fortune (née Graham,
b. Kamloops, BC 1908) married in Prince George, BC in
1928.
1948-49: Charles Broughton Bowman (b. Windsor,
NS 1867-1949) and Francis Sophia (née Smallwood, b.
ENG 1890-1963). Charles was in real estate, loans and
insurance; he retired in 1936, and moved to Victoria with
his first wife Florence, who died in 1942 aged 71. From
1939-47 Charles resided at the Angela Hotel at 923 Burdett
Av, Fairfield. [Charles B. Bowman and Catherine Bowman
Cheeseman, see below, don’t appear to be related.]
1950-51: Retired physician George Albert Cheeseman
(b. London, ENG 1879-1951) and Catherine Eleanor (née
Bowman, b. Windsor, ON 1894-1964) both came to BC
in 1905, and married in Vancouver in 1926. After living
in Field, BC, the Cheesemans came to Victoria in 1949.
Catherine left the house after George’s death.
1952-57:
Mrs Audrey Mary Hammond (née Lemon, b. Winnipeg
1890-1968), widow of Herbert Renwick Hammond (b.
Toronto, ON 1887-1930). They came to BC in 1913 to
farm, and Herbert died near Lillooet, BC, in 1930. Audrey
lived in Oak Bay at the time of her death.
1961-69: Dr. Alfred “Michael” Warrington (b.
London, ENG 1924-2014) and Helen (née Bond, b. Kent,
ENG, 1932). Dr. Warrington was in the British Army
Royal Armoured Corps in WWII. He was wounded in
Holland in the “Bridge Too Far” campaign when the tank
he commanded was blown up. After he was released
from hospital, he transferred to Egypt and stayed until
1947, then was demobilized as a captain. With veterans’
funding he studied medicine at London University and
was practicing at the Canadian Red Cross Memorial
Hospital at Taplow, ENG, when he met Helen, a nurse.
They married in 1955, then came to Saskatchewan in 1959
and to Victoria in 1961. They had no money for a down
payment at the time, but a local bank manager gave them
a mortgage for this house. Dr. Warrington ran his family
practice in Victoria for eight years. When they moved to
Vancouver in 1969, the Warringtons had seven children;
an eighth was born there. Dr. Warrington joined the BC
Regiment militia in the 1970s as medical officer, and
retired a Lt.-Col. as commanding officer of Vancouver’s
12th Medical Company.
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
