Heritage Register
Rockland
620 St. Charles Street (ex-614 St. Charles St)
Prior House
Built
1911
Heritage-Designated 1997
For: Edward & Genevieve Prior
Architect: William Ridgway Wilson
Contractor: Thomas Ashe
ARCHITECTURE:
This 2½-storey, gable-on-hip-roofed Tudor Revival
house has wide eaves with multiple modillions. The jerkinheaded
dormers on the sides and the gables all have leaded
casement windows. The symmetrical garden façade on the
left side has a full-width balustraded balcony supported
on long, chunky brackets. A recessed angled bay on the
upper storey sits between two full-height angled bays.
The balcony forms a canopy for the main floor porch,
which features Classically-inspired balusters. The porch is
accessed by a formal, double-sided stairway with the same
baluster design. The porch entrance and the semi-circular
garden entrance below the stairway are centrally located.
The rear has a box bay with art glass windows to the right
of a two-storey extension. On the right side are two tall
random stone chimneys, one an exterior wall chimney; there is a third above the garden façade. The main entrance porch
is flat-roofed and has two pairs of Tuscan columns with
entasis on concrete-capped stone piers. The recessed entry
has oak-panelled double doors and matching sidelights. A
prominent belt course separates the half-timbered upper
storey from the main floor, which is random granite on the
front and garden façades, and drop siding on the right side
and rear. Most windows are multi-paned-over-one. A hiproofed
garage to the right rear of the property is clad in drop
siding; its three pairs of double doors have diagonal braces.
The house,
which cost
$17,000, was
completed
but not yet
occupied when
it was destroyed
by fire on 23
Feb 1912. VDC 24 Feb 1912 pg.7.
The Priors had
insured it for
$15,000, and
immediately
rebuilt.
The
house was
designed in 1911 by noted Victoria architect William
Ridgway-Wilson, who was responsible for many historic
buildings still existing in downtown Victoria and the neighbourhoods, including: South Park School (508
Douglas St, James Bay), the Bay Street Armoury (713
Bay St, Burnside), and St. John the Divine Anglican
Church (1611 Quadra St, North Park).
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1911-47: Hon. Edward Gawlor Prior (l853-1920),
Premier of BC 1902-03 and Lt.-Gov. 1919-1920, lived in
The Priory at 729 Pemberton Rd, Rockland, for many
years. Genevieve Boucher Kennedy (née Wright, b.
Victoria 1863-1955), the daughter of Thomas and Cornelia
Wright, lived in San Francisco and was a widow when she
came to visit her sister in Victoria in the 1890s. Here she
met Edward, and they married in Vancouver in 1899. They
travelled to Europe while the house was being rebuilt
after the fire. Genevieve was one of Victoria’s notable
political hostesses for many years. She was also actively
involved in charitable work, particularly at the Royal
Jubilee Hospital. In 1919 they moved to Government
House. Genevieve returned here after his death and stayed
until 1947; many of her possessions were auctioned in the
house, and she moved into the Empress Hotel.
.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1948-56: Retired Admiral Percy Walker Nelles (b.
Brantford, ON 1892-1951) and Helen Schuyler (née
Allen, b. Bermuda 1893-1956). Helen came to Canada in
1919. Percy enrolled at 16 in the first class of cadets at the
Royal Naval College of Canada. At the outbreak of WWII,
Percy was Chief of Naval Staff of the RCN. He was sent
overseas as Senior Canadian Naval Officer in 1944. He
retired in 1946 and he and Helen moved to Victoria.
1957-65: This was the residence for Norfolk House
School for Girls, which had moved into Gonzales, the old Pemberton house across the street, in 1945.
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
