Heritage Register
Rockland
1524 Shasta Place
Built
1923; 1927; 1929
Heritage-Designated 2000
For: Helen Nation; Helen & Robert Ker
Architect: Percy Leonard James
Contractor: Eli Hume (1927; 1929)
ARCHITECTURE:
This asymetrical, two-storey, stuccoed house, with its
complex bellcast hipped roof, is British Arts & Crafts style
as influenced by Georgian Revival. There is a small eyebrow
dormer on the front, and two odd-sized, flat-roofed dormers
on the rear. The jerkin-head-gabled front bay has a large
leaded window to the left of the main entrance; the vestigial
porch has a small bracketed canopy with wrought iron braces
above. The wall chimney on the right front separates two
small arched windows in a hip-roofed box bay. On the
right side of the house is a large, cantilevered, angled oriel
bay. On the left side is a ridged breezeway giving access to
the jerkin-head-gabled garage, built in
1927 for $1,450. The garden façade at
the rear, facing a balustraded terrace,
has a deep belt course separating the
two floors; it has a shallow entry box
bay and an angled bay. The 1923
house cost $12,126. In 1929 P.L.
James added a library and sunroom
with two bedrooms above for $10,000.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Helen Maud Nation (b. Brandon,
MB 1891-1971) was the daughter
of Frederick and Abigail Nation
(1320 Rockland Av). Her father
commissioned the house as a wedding gift when she
married Robert Henry Brackman Ker (b. Victoria 1895-
1976). Helen and Robert lived here until 1953 then moved
to their summer estate on Arbutus Cove in Saanich, where
the original cottage and other buildings were also designed
by P.L. James.
Robert was the son of David Russell Ker and Laura
Agnes (née Heisterman, 1521 Shasta Pl) and the grandson
of Robert Ker, who arrived in Victoria in the 1850s.
Robert was educated at University School in Saanich, and
Haileybury College in England. He was a member of the
50th Gordon Highlanders, and served overseas in WWI
with the 48th Battalion, CEF. In 1915 he joined the Royal
Flying Corps and became a major. After the war, Robert
went into insurance and real estate. He was a director, then
president of family companies involving flour milling
(Brackman-Ker Mill), breweries and oil. He was a director
of BC Power Corp, BC Electric, Montreal Trust Co and
others. Robert was Victoria’s youngest alderman in 1923-
24, and served 11 years. A philanthropist and patron of the
arts, his many gifts to groups such as the Art Gallery of
Greater Victoria earned him the Order of Canada in 1974.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Henry Carter (1895-1975) and Marion (née
Cummings) lived here from 1954 until the 1960s. Henry
and his brother Gerald ran Individual Dry Cleaners.
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
