Heritage Register
Rockland

520 St. Charles Street
(ex-420, 506 St. Charles St)
Frogmore

Built 1914
Heritage-Designated 2001

For: Walter & Elizabeth Poole

Architect: Hubert Savage
Contractor: Charles Boniface

ARCHITECTURE:

This front-facing, 1½-storey house has a bracketed, jerkin-headed gable above an enclosed sleeping porch. The symmetrical upper front floor and the asymmetrical lower are features of the Edwardian Vernacular Arts & Crafts style, as is the inset corner front porch. There are gabled, cantilevered bays on each side. A denticulated string course separates the two floors. Long British Arts & Crafts-style brackets and square posts on the solid balustrade support the porch roof. The main entrance has leaded-glass sidelights and an oak panelled door. On each side of the house is a cantilevered, angled, gabled bay. A water table separates the foundation and the main floor. The entire house is clad in double-bevelled siding. The house cost $4,800 to build.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1914-25: Walter Poole (b. Derbyshire, ENG 1862- 1921) came to BC in 1883. In 1906 he married Elizabeth Marie Dupen, 31. Walter worked for G. Halliday & Sons, hardware merchants, although his death registration lists him as a hotel proprietor. Walter died in the house, and his funeral was held here. A later owner claimed that his ghost remained and was difficult to remove from the house. After Walter’s death, Elizabeth lived here another three years.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1926-35: Reginald Hawke Genn (b. Liverpool, ENG 1871-1953) and Grace Jane (née King, b. Winnipeg 1880- 1957) married in 1905 in Victoria, then spent six years travelling through New Zealand, Scotland and England before returning to BC. Reginald sailed for some time on merchant sailing ships to Africa, New Zealand, and Alaska before coming to BC in 1890. He took part in the Klondike Gold Rush, and then came to Victoria in 1900. Grace came to Victoria as a young girl. Reginald became a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC in 1921, and remained in this profession until his death. They had one daughter, Grace, and two sons, Kenneth and Douglas.

1936-66: Edwin Munday (b. Victoria 1893-1966) and Jessie May (née Galliford b. Berkshire, ENG 1898- 1963) married in 1924. Edwin was the eldest son of Henry Edwin and Nora Munday (1091 Joan Cr, Rockland, 1035 Pakington St, Fairfield, and 517 Michigan St, James Bay), founder of a successful boot and shoe business which opened in 1903 and closed in the 1990s. Jessie was living at Hatley Park in Colwood, BC, at the time of her marriage. Edwin spent his life in the shoe business, in partnership with his brother Hubert.

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