Heritage Register
Rockland
582 St. Charles Street (ex-532 St. Charles St)
Riffham
Built
1904
Heritage-Designated 2002
For: Elizabeth & George Kirk
Architect: Francis Mawson Rattenbury
ARCHITECTURE:
This two-storey, bellcast-hip-roofed, Tudor Revival
house has many of the same Rattenbury traits as 534 St.
Charles St. The main façade has a gabled, half-timbered
projection with a tall, slender finial and ten multi-light
leaded windows. It sits on a bracketed belt course above
a curve-arched porch which leads to the front door. To the
right on the second floor is a wide balcony over an open
porch with large square posts,
pilaster and solid balustrade.
To the left on the main floor
is a hip-roofed angled bay.
Above the bay, a wide dormer
addition adds a ½ storey to
the house. On the right side
is a small dormer above a
one-storey box bay; both are
hip-roofed. On the left side is
flat roofed extension with a
deck above. On the rear is a
full-height angled bay under the roofline. The front steps,
flared balustrades and round posts are all of stone. There
is a matching garage beyond the main house. Both are
stuccoed with half-timbered upper levels. The Victoria
Daily Colonist listed the house as costing $6,000.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1904-28: Elizabeth “Lizzie” Georgina (1873-1928)
and George Allan Kirk (b. Dover, ENG 1870-1928)
married in 1903. Lizzie was the daughter of James and
Agnes Harvey; Agnes was the daughter of Robert and Joan
Dunsmuir (1050 Joan Cr, Rockland). Agnes died in 1889
in Nanaimo and James six months later. Joan, recently
widowed, had just moved into the huge new Craigdarroch
Castle, and she took Lizzie and her brother Robert to live
with her. It is believed that Joan Dunsmuir commissioned
Rattenbury to design this house for her granddaughter. The
wedding reception was at Craigdarroch, and the couple
honeymooned around the world. They returned about a
year later and took up residence in their new home.
George was the son of Emily and Col. James
Buchanan Kirk, commander of the 91st Argyll and
Sutherland Highlanders. George was in the Royal
Navy, then came to Victoria in 1890. He and his brother
Lawrence became partners in the wholesale dry goods
business, Turner, Beeton Co, and by 1902 George was
managing director. George joined the 8th Fusiliers and
eventually became a major. In 1914, he was thrown from
his horse while with his regiment at the Willows training
ground, and eventually lost his leg. He died suddenly
in London, England, of heart failure. Elizabeth died in
Victoria several months later of “cerebral apoplexy”.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
This house was vacant for several years.
1932-63:
Raymond Francis Castle (1895-1949) and Katherine Elma
“Kitty” Fraser (1894-1963) married in 1922 and lived with
her parents Elizabeth (née Thomson) and Dr. Roderick
Fraser at 800 St Charles St before moving here. Kitty
was the granddaughter of William and Margaret Thomson,
very early Central Saanich pioneers. Raymond was born
in Teulon, MB, a small town named after his Irish mother
Cara Maria Teulon, by his father Charles Caesar Castle,
who was a director of the railway which extended to the
Ukrainian settlement north of Winnipeg c.1900. Raymond
came to Victoria in 1910. He was a financier, and during
the time he lived at this house, he ran the Native Sons
Mines and was proprietor of the Oak Bay Theatre.
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