Heritage Register
Rockland
1322 Rockland Avenue
(ex-Belcher St)
Schuhuum
Built
1894; 1915
Heritage Covenant
For: Hewitt & Lizzie Bostock;
William & Emma Agnew
Architects: W. Ridgway Wilson (1894);
Samuel Maclure (1915)
Contractor: Bishop & Sherborne (1894)
ARCHITECTURE:
Ridgway-Wilson’s
2½-storey British
Arts & Crafts house
combines elements of
the Queen Anne and
Tudor Revival styles.
The asymmetrical
design has a deep, sideridged,
hipped roof and
a dormer between two
front-facing gables on
either side of the main
entrance. On the left is
a jettied, pedimented
gable over an angled
bay; on the right the
gable is above a threestorey
rectangular bay.
A small oriel bay on long brackets capped by an angled
roof is located on the far right. Maclure added a flat-roofed
“Coach Porch” with plain brick pillars in front of the main
entrance. The chunky eave brackets are a continuation of
the original brackets on the right bay.
There are gables on the other three sides and a dormer
on the left. The bargeboards on the front and rear gables
have appliquéd decoration. An elaborate verandah which
begins at the entrance wraps around the left side of the
house; it has multiple brackets, clusters of ornate, square,
reverse-tapered columns, and sawn balusters. Originally
three sets of double-doors led out onto the verandah; only
one set remains.
The foundation and main floor are brick, the upper
storeys are half-timbered. There are two styles of decorative
shingles on the oriel wall, the wall above the entrance and
the bay below the left front gable. There are many elaborate
corbelled Queen Anne chimneys. There are now attached
buildings on the right side and at the rear. The house cost the
Bostocks $15,000.
The name Schuhuum is reportedly of Indian origin and means “windy spot.”
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1894-1900: Hewitt Bostock (b. Surrey, ENG 1864-
1930) and Lizzie Jean (née Cowie, 1867-1942). Hewitt
graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1885 and
1322 Rockland Av, c.1890s RBCM / BCA G-06069 / Maynard
came to Canada in 1886. He bought a
ranch at Monte Creek, near Kamloops,
and returned to England to marry, then
returned to BC and built Schuhuum. He
entered politics in 1896 when elected
as MP for Yale-Cariboo. In 1896 he
started The Province, a weekly Victoria
paper that he and Walter Nichol (1759
Rockland Av) subsequently turned
into a daily Vancouver paper. He was
appointed Senator for Victoria in 1904,
although by this point he had sold
Schuhuum and was living on his ranch.
He was appointed Speaker of the House
in 1922 and held this position until his
death. Daughter Marion obtained her
MD at the London School of Medicine
in England, and became a medical
missionary in India. She married
banker Victor Sherman and they retired
to Miramar on Ten Mile Point in
Saanich in 1936.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Tenants: 1898-1901: H. Hirschel Cohen of the Cassiar Central Railway Co, and
managing director of the African-BC Corp Ltd of London,
a large shareholder in CCRC. The CCRC was built in 1898
to carry gold out of Cassiar.
1900-01: Arthur Philip Luxton
(b. Brushford, ENG 1863-1924) of Davie, Pooley & Luxton,
Barristers & Solicitors. He later lived at 1663 Rockland Av.
1901-11: The Hon. James Douglas Prentice (b.
Lanarkshire, SCT 1861-1911) and Mabel Clare (née
Galpin, b. ENG 1868) married in Victoria in 1897, bought
the house in 1901, and commissioned Samuel Maclure
to undertake numerous renovations. James was educated
in Edinburgh and came to Canada c.1888. He was a bank
clerk and then a rancher in Lillooet, BC. He was elected
MLA for Lillooet in 1898 and 1900, and the family lived
at Braeside, now 1731 Rockland Av, when they were in Victoria. They moved to Schuhuum after James became
Provincial Secretary in the Dunsmuir administration in
1900, and then Minister of Finance in 1901.
1912-50: William Agnew (b. Co. Down, IRL 1848-1922)
and Emma Johnson (née Waterous, 1849-1917: William
hired Samuel Maclure to design her tombstone) retired from
Montreal to Victoria in 1912. William was a wholesale silk
importer. He came to Canada in 1856 and lived in Ontario,
where they married. Their only son, Augustus Waterous
Agnew (b. Montreal 1884-1916) was a civil engineer and in
the militia for six years when he signed up at 21 for WWI
in 1915. He was a Major with the 3rd Battalion, Canadian
Pioneers when he was killed in the Battle of the Somme in
France in September 1916. He is buried in Contay British
Cemetery on the road to Amiens. Their daughter Martha
Clara “Kathleen” (b. Montreal 1880-1967) remained in the
house. Educated in Germany and France, she was fluent in
both languages. Kathleen was a noted philanthropist, and was
named Victoria’s Good Citizen in 1957. She was a patron of
the arts, and supported the YWCA, YMCA, Girl Guides and
Boy Scouts. She willed her entire library to the University
of Victoria, and many paintings to the Art Gallery of Greater
Victoria (1040 Moss St, Rockland).
1950-2004: Kathleen donated Schuhuum to the Anglican
Church as the Caroline Macklem Home for Anglican Women.
It closed in 1999. Controversy ensued when the so-called
Baron George von Bothmer zu Schwegerhoff, aka George
C. Davis, signed a 99-year lease with the Anglican Church
Women’s Society for $1 a year in 2000. An out-of-court
settlement was reached, the Baron left Canada and the house
was sold in 2004.
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
