Heritage Register
Rockland
1001 Terrace Avenue
Buncrana; Bowser Mansion
Built
1912-13
Heritage-Designated 1985
For: William & Lorinda Bowser
Architect: A. Arthur Cox
Contractors: William S. McDonald & Hugh Wilson
ARCHITECTURE:
This impressive asymmetrical British Arts & Crafts
house has a complex roofline consisting of hips and gables
and shed-roofed dormers. A tower, perched on the rear of
the roof, overlooks the garden façade; it has a pyramidal
hipped roof on brackets and arched multi-light windows
on all sides. A square extension on the rear of the tower
has a long oriel bay below a balcony. The rear façade
has multiple arched porches and balconies. The offset
recessed front entrance is accessed through a hip-roofed
porte-cochère supported on four massive battered, random
granite piers with quoins. To the left of the porte-cochère
is a two-storey, gabled extension with a multi-paned
leaded light arched window. There are three large parged
chimneys, one of which is on the tower. The house is clad
in roughcast stucco with quoins at lower corners and some
simple half-timbering in gables. The architect used both
Nelson Island granite and Haddington Island andesite
as building materials. Buncrana derives its name from a
place on Lough Swilly, Co. Donegal, Ireland. Vancouver
architect A.A. Cox designed this residence whose “upper
extremity once was higher above sea level than any other
structure in the city.”
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1912-33: The Hon. William John Bowser (1867-1933), and his wife Lorinda Davidson (née Doherty,
1868-1928) moved to Victoria in 1913. They were both
born in Rexton, NB, where they married in 1896. After a
law degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, William
was called to the New Brunswick bar. In 1891 he came
to Vancouver, and was called to the BC bar. He practised
law in different partnerships, served as Crown Prosecutor
several times and in 1900 was named Queen’s Counsel.
In 1897 William was elected to the BC Legislature
for Vancouver. In
1907 Sir Richard
McBride appointed
him Attorney
General. He initiated
the first automobile
legislation and
pushed for liquor
control laws.
William was reelected
repeatedly
as a Conservative
by his Vancouver
constituents and
in 1909-10 he was
Minister of Finance.
He briefly served
as premier of the
province, when
McBride resigned
in December 1915.
William served as Leader of the
small Official
Opposition,
and retired
from politics
in 1924 after
losing his
Vancouver seat
in a general
election.
Lorinda
died in 1928
after a long
illness.
Throughout
her husband’s
career she
played a
prominent role
in the public life
of Victoria, and
often opened
her home
for political,
social, and
philanthropic functions. William lived here until his death in
1933. The Vancouver Island community of Bowser is named
for him.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1934-79: Gladys Blanche Irving (b. New Brunswick
1892-1979), Lorinda’s niece, came to Victoria in 1914
and worked for the Canadian Red Cross for many years.
Gladys’s sister, Eunice Bowser Weldon (née Irving, b.
New Brunswick 1896-1972) lived at 906 Pemberton Rd,
Rockland, from 1939-52, then lived here with Gladys
from 1952 until her death. The widow of Haliburton Hugh
Weldon, who died outside BC by 1947, Eunice came to
BC in 1910. She was an active member of the CNIB and
honorary president of the White Cane Club.
About 1975, developers offered Gladys a corner
suite on the 15th floor of Camosack Manor, now called
the Belmont, on top of Terrace Av, the highest building in
Victoria. She was delighted with the views, and agreed to
sell Buncrana to them. It was strata-titled in the mid-1980s
and is now called Bowser Mansion.
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
