Heritage Register
Rockland

1373 Rockland Avenue (ex-1365 Rockland Av)

Built 1912
Heritage-Registered

For: Arthur & Leita Bechtel

Architect: James Charles Malcolm Keith

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a two-storey, low-pitched-front-gabled, Chalet-style house with very heavy, corbelled brackets in the eaves. It has a high belt course between the upper and main floors, and a water table above the basement. There are wings on either side with balconies with square balusters. An entry porch on the main floor is below the balcony on the right. The gable is shingled, the main body is clad in board-and-batten and the basement has horizontal siding. There is a large corbelled brick chimney.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

First owners and residents Dr. Arthur Daniel (1882-1959) and Leita May (Jones, 1886-1977) Bechtel lived here until the early-1930s. Born in Victoria, Arthur was the son of Andrew John Bechtel and Rachel Munger (1385 Rockland Av). Leita was born in Sacramento, CA. Arthur studied medicine at McGill University and practised in Victoria until retiring in 1958. He was a freemason, and president of the Victoria Golf Club. Arthur, a painter, had several of his works exhibited in local art galleries, and won first prize in the 1954 Canadian Doctors’ Art contest.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Peter Gray (1896-1973) and Edith Mary (1900-1981) Barr were living here by 1937. Peter came to BC from Scotland in 1919. He married Edith Mary d’Easum in New Westminster in 1922 and they moved to Victoria in 1925. Peter was a rancher in the 1920s, then a civil servant until 1958. The Barrs lived here until the mid-1960s.

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