Heritage Register
Rockland
1525 Shasta Place (ex-851 St. Charles St)
former stable forThe Leasowes, Westover
Built
1904; 1968
Heritage-Registered
For: Albert Edward Todd; Lawrence Shirley Northey
Architects: William Ridgway Wilson (1904);
Peter Cotton (1968)
Contractor: Thomas Catterall (1904)
ARCHITECTURE:
Westover is fashioned out of a former stable or coachhouse,
the only remaining structure of one of Victoria’s
great estates, The Leasowes. It originally
accommodated up to six carriages and a number of horses.
This 1½-storey structure has a wide, shallow hipped roof
with two large gabled dormers perpendicular to each other.
It has an one-storey hip-roofed extension on the left rear
corner with unusual 12-over-three windows. There were
originally sliding stable doors under the dormers, one of
these has become the main front entrance. The balustrade
on the balcony above the entrance was designed to imitate
the vent headers in the gables; the vents vented the haylofts.
The dormers are decorated with stickwork over the drop
siding, that covers the entire structure. Six-over-one
double-hung sashes with horns were added on the main
floor to complement original six-over-six upper floor
windows, and to replace horizontal windows at horse-head
height.
Contractor Thomas Catterall (b. Liverpool, ENG
1843-1919) lived at 1012 Pemberton Rd, Rockland (demolished), then at 1336 Beach Dr, Oak Bay.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1904-11: Bert Todd (721 Linden Av, Rockland) built
The Leasowes, complete with a substantial stable,
for his widowed mother, Rosanna (née Wigley, 1839-1931),
and sisters, Mae and Nellie. It was named for a family
home in Staffordshire, ENG. Mae married John Hebden
Gillespie of Highwood (1021 Gillespie Pl, Rockland) in
1905. Nellie married his brother Alexander in 1907, and
both couples moved out. Bert lived here with his mother
until his marriage in 1910, but according to family she was
lonely for her daughters and hated the huge house. In 1911
Rosanna auctioned off the property and moved near her daughters, into 1972 Fairfield Rd, now 423 Chadwick Pl,
Gonzales, which she also called The Leasowes.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1911-38: James Dunsmuir (1852-1920) and Laura
Miller (née Surles, 1858-1937) bought the estate and
renamed it Westover, to use as their pied-à-terre in
the City; their primary residence was Hatley Park in
Colwood. Born at Fort Vancouver, WA, as his parents,
Robert and Joan Dunsmuir (1050 Joan Cr, Rockland)
were coming from Scotland to Vancouver Island with
HBC, James spent his early childhood in Nanaimo, and
completed his education at a military college in Blackburg,
VA. Laura, a member of the prominent Byrd family of
Virginia, was born in another Westover, one of the great
Colonial Georgian mansions. She was completing her
education in Hamilton, ON, when she met James. They
married in 1876.
Upon his return to Vancouver Island, James joined his
father’s coal mining firm, and took over the family businesses
almost entirely after his father died in 1889. The family first
lived at his parent’s former home, Fairview (demolished) in
James Bay, then built Burleith (destroyed by fire) in Victoria
West in 1891-92. James was elected MLA for Comox in
1898, and for Newcastle in 1900. He became Premier of
BC that year, but resigned two years later because of a controversy over railway policies. From 1906-09 James was
BC’s Lt.-Gov., but was criticised for his refusal to give Royal
Assent to anti-Asian legislation, because his company was
using cheap Chinese immigrant labour. During this period
Hatley Park was constructed in Colwood. James
retired after the death of their son Lt. James “Boy” Dunsmuir
when the Lusitania was torpedoed in May 1915; he never
recovered from that loss.
Laura was active in charitable organizations and social
clubs and was the first honorary president of the Women’s
Canadian Club. She died at Hatley Park in 1937. In the late
1920s Laura loaned Westover to daughter Kathleen and
husband A. Seldon Humphreys, so that their children could
attend school in Victoria. Kathleen held many parties on
the large estate, but in 1929 they moved to their new house
at 1621 Prospect Pl in Oak Bay. Kathleen was a dedicated
worker during both World Wars. During WWII she ran a
travelling canteen for Canadian soldiers in Farnborough and
Aldershot. She was killed in 1941, during the Blitz. While
entertaining family and friends at her son’s engagement
party in the London nightclub Cafe de Paris, it took a direct
hit during a German bombing raid.
Tenants: 1917-20: Chauffeur John William Thompson
Johnston (1871-1951) and Jeannie Robson (née Martin,
1873-1924), both from Aberdeen, Scotland, lived above the
stable. John, who was later a bus driver for BCER, left the
house after Jeannie’s death.
1931: Gardener Samuel James
McClean (1878-1954) and his wife Jean (Dunlop).
Owners: 1938-68: May France (née Montgomery,
1882-1968) came to Victoria from Britain in 1913 and
worked for the Dunsmuirs as nanny to their youngest
daughter Dola. In England and Tokyo, May had worked for
several high-ranking Japanese families, including Prince
Tokugawa. In 1918 she married Herbert Henry France
(c.1888-1938), a repairman with Thomas Plimley. She
left her job and they moved to Sidney where he died of
cancer. The Dunsmuir family gave the remodelled Westover stable to May as a home for herself and son Gordon. The
Dunsmuirs then sold the main house and remainder of the
property to the city for unpaid taxes c.1941, and the big
house was demolished in the late 1950s.
In 1957, May remarried, to widower Robert Percival
Sterling Twizell (1875-1964), a retired architect. He and his
brother George Sterling Twizell, both born in Newcastleon-
Tyne, ENG, came to Vancouver c.1908. The partnership
of Twizell & Twizell lasted until 1954, although George
retired to Esquimalt in 1950. They designed a number of
prominent houses in Shaughnessy Hts, and many schools
and churches. Robert moved to Victoria after his first wife
died in 1957, and George died that same year. Robert and
May went on a five-month honeymoon to Europe, then
moved back into Westover and made further renovations.
1969-70s: J. Lawrence and Shirley Northey from
Calgary hired architect Peter Cotton to turn the entire
stable building into a home.
1980s: Sam Bawlf restored
the house. In 1973 as a Victoria City councillor, he
developed the City’s first heritage policies and lobbied the
BC government for the first urban heritage conservation
amendments to the Municipal Act. In 1977, as Minister
of Recreation and Conservation in BC’s Social Credit
government, Sam wrote BC’s first Heritage Conservation
Act, and steered the development of the BC Heritage Trust
and Heritage Conservation Branch. Sam is the brother of
the late Nicholas Bawlf (b. Calgary 1938-2012), heritage
preservation architect (642 Battery St, James Bay.)
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
