Heritage Register
Rockland
1770 Rockland Avenue
Built
1905
Heritage-Designated 1982
For: Biggerstaff & Bertha Wilson
Architect: Samuel Maclure
Contractor: George Calder
ARCHITECTURE:
This 2½-
storey house is
hip-roofed with
large gabled
extensions
on all sides.
The bracketed
gables have
finials and
are jettied on
corbels. There is
a gabled dormer
on the
front,
with flat-roofed and hip-roofed dormers on the rear.
The front has a balcony over the recessed entry
porch, all supported on heavy battered granite piers.
The step and porch balustrades are also granite. On
the left side is another balustraded balcony above
what was once an open porch, now enclosed. The
ground floor is faced with granite, the second floor
and gables with roughcast stucco and half-timbering,
and the rear façade is shingled. It has three ribbed
and corbelled brick chimneys. The house cost
$9,000.
Samuel Maclure was not the first designer to
be identified with Tudor Revival houses in Victoria.
L.B. Trimen designed Ellesmere (1321 Rockland
Av) in 1889, and Wm. Ridgway-Wilson, Schuhuum (1322 Rockland Av) in 1894. Maclure’s launch into
the Tudor style was a renovation of Schuhuum in
1901 where he replaced the small gabled wooden entry porch with a fashionable brick
porte-cochère that was not only out
of historical character but obscured
the façade. Perhaps it is unfair to
be critical of Maclure for this, as
doubtless his client had demanded the
alterations. Despite “Macluresque”
and “Tudor” being synonymous in
Victoria, few of his half-timbered
creations have other hallmarks of
the Tudor style. Maclure preferred to
develop his own eclectic style.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1905-67: Biggerstaff “Big”
Wilson (b. Victoria 1874-1925) and
Bertha Matilda (née Erb, b. Victoria
1875-1970) married in 1900. Big, the
son of prominent Victoria clothier
William Wilson, was sent to Christ’s
College, Finchley, London, ENG, to complete his studies, as
had his older brother Herbert (610 St. Charles St, Rockland).
In 1901 Big founded the B. Wilson Ice & Cold Storage Co on
Store St and expanded it to Herald St in 1909. The company
opened a locker plant in 1935 and in 1938 introduced a line
of packaged foods, mostly fruits and vegetables. Biggerstaff,
an avid golfer, was elected president of the Pacific Northwest
Golf Association. In 1921 he was selected as one of eight
golfers from the West to go to St. Louis, MO, to compete
in an amateur US championship game. He remained active
until about a year before his death. He fell ill after a trip to
England, travelled to California to regain his health, but died
in Beverly Hills in 1925.
Bertha Erb was educated at Angela College (923
Burdett Av, Fairfield) and lived all her life in Victoria.
Their son, Richard Biggerstaff “Dick” Wilson, was mayor
of Victoria from 1961-65 and a University of Victoria
chancellor. Bertha lived in this house until 1967.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1967-2010: Henry William “Harry” Gladwell (b.
Regina, SK 1911-2010) and Caroline (née Lomax, b. Hong
Kong 1923-2007) requested heritage designation of the
house in 1982. Harry acquired the local Ford dealership
and ran Gladwell Motors from 1946 for over 10 years. He
excelled at many sports, including rowing, sailing, skiing,
golfing, fishing and hunting birds, and surfed into his 80s.
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
