Heritage Register
Rockland
1023 St. Charles Street
Inglehurst/Englehurst; Eastwell
Built
1896
Heritage-Designated 1996
For: Penelope & Thomas Attwood-Wilson
Architect: Samuel Maclure
ARCHITECTURE:
Inglehurst is an excellent example of the Swiss Chalet
style, rare in Victoria. This two-storey, cross-gabled house
shows typical features: low-pitched, front-gabled roof,
wide, bracketed eaves and flat sawn trusses in the gables.
Also typical are the full-width, upper-storey, cantilevered
balcony with flat sawn balustrades, and decorative vertical
stickwork applied over drop siding. Atypical features are
the bays on the front and right side. On the right side of
the house is a one-storey, hip-roofed, cantilevered box bay
and, to its left, a full-height, gabled box bay interrupted by
a brick wall chimney with shoulders. On the left side of the
house is a large gabled extension towards the rear, which
is shingled on the upper floor. Also atypical is the inset left
corner entry porch with square chamfered post and pilasters.
The stair balustrades are of stepped stone. There are a
number of stained glass windows. It was built for $3,000,
and duplexed in 1950 for $3,000. The decorative details
on the house, missing for years, were replicated by Vintage
Woodworks for Colony Construction in 1988.
In subsequent years Maclure modified the chalet style
in a series of houses resulting in a house-type referred to
as the “Maclure Chalet.” Among them are 1009 Terrace
Av (1899-1900) and 1598 Rockland Av (1904).
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1896-1925: Mary Ann “Penelope” Attwood (née
Clifton, b.Nottingham, ENG 1833-1925) was the daughter
of the Rev. William C.B. Clifton, and granddaughter
of Sir Granville Jukes Clifton. She married Francis
William Attwood in 1861 and arrived in Victoria in 1862.
After his death she remarried in 1873, to cabinetmaker
Thomas Sidney Wilson (b.Yorkshire, ENG 1824-1906)
who came to Canada in 1862. He was employed by the
E&N Railway. Penelope remained in this house until her
death. She was one of the first organists of Christ Church
Cathedral, and a noted soprano and teacher.
1928-31: Capt. Roy Wayne Troup (1881-1954), son of
BC Coastal Steamship Co (BCCSS) superintendent Capt.
James Troup (396-468 Belleville St, James Bay). In 1906
in Seattle, he married Maude Goodwin, an accomplished
musician. Roy followed in his father’s footsteps, serving sternwheelers on the Skeena for several years and later ran
the White Swan Flyer on the Fraser. Roy commissioned
construction of the sternwheeler SS Craigflower in 1908; it
was intended to be used in Victoria’s harbour, but after an
ill-fated attempt to navigate the Skeena River in 1910 the
ship was returned to Victoria and dismantled the following
year. During WWI he served overseas with the merchant
navy. He died in Los Angeles in 1954.
.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1932-36, 1941-52: Barrister Alexander Nairn
Robertson (1896-1967) and Elizabeth Allan (née
Schofield) married in Victoria in 1927. Alexander
attended the Royal Military College in Kingston, ON, and
served with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery during
WWI. He practised law in Victoria and Vancouver until
c.1943.
Tenant: 1939: Vera Frances St. Thomas Easton
(1884-1985) never married. From 1942-85 she lived at
851 Wollaston St, the only Francis Mawson Rattenburydesigned
house in Esquimalt.
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