Heritage Register
Rockland
1031 Terrace Avenue
Terrace Court
Built
1905-06
Heritage-Registered
For: Francis & Marion Stirling
Architect: Samuel Maclure
Contractor: George Charles Mesher & Co
ARCHITECTURE:
This 2½-storey house combines Prairie School and
Tudor Revival Arts & Crafts styles. It is asymmetrical
and has a wide, bellcast hipped roof, wide eaves and a
front-facing shed-roofed dormer with a balcony. There
are extensions on the main floor on the right and left
sides of the house. On the front façade, below the dormer,
is an offset, wide front porch with tapered square posts
supporting a balcony above. The balusters of the dormer
and balcony are square; the porch has shingled posts and
balustrades. The upper floor is stuccoed and half-timbered,
and is separated from the shingled lower floor by a high
corbelled belt course. The horizontal emphasis of the wide
eaves is enhanced by the different surface treatments, and
attests to Samuel Maclure’s admiration of the work of Frank
Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1905-31: Dr. Francis Henry Stirling (b. France 1870-
1931) and his second wife, Marion Louisa (née Johnston,
b.Kent, ENG 1872-1931), who came to BC in 1901.
Francis grew up in Scotland, trained as an oculist in Vienna
and came to BC in 1890. He married Jessie H. Smith in
Nanaimo in 1891. She died in 1892 while giving birth to
Jessie Dorothea. Francis continued his medical training and
established a practice in Victoria in the early 1890s. He was
an accomplished amateur golfer, winning several provincial
championships.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Tenants: 1921: Arthur Charlton and Vina
Burdick (1595 Rockland Av) rented the house.
1932-35: Strathcona Hotel manager Manuel “Albert”
Wylde (b. New Westminster 1867-1956) and Alice Ellen
(née Mesher, b. Farnham, ENG, 1869), with their daughter
Victoria Wylde (b. Victoria 1897), a government steno.
Alice was the sister of architect/contractor George C.
Mesher (1004 Terrace Av).
1936-44: William Henry Langley (b. Victoria 1868-1951) was the son of Alfred and Mary Langley. [Alfred
established a wholesale drug business in San Francisco in the
early 1850s, then in Victoria in 1858. Langley St is named for
him.] William was educated at Trinity College School at Port
Hope, ON, then worked in the law offices of Drake, Jackson
& Helmcken. He completed his legal education in London
and was called to the BC bar in 1890. He worked with Archer
Martin (1022-24 McGregor Av, Rockland), then Alexis
Martin (1598 Rockland Av) until 1906, then established his
own practice. In 1906 William married Gladys Annie Mona
Baiss (1881-1978), a native of San Antonio, TX, who came to
BC in 1888. He served overseas from 1916-18 and earned the
rank of major. He was a solicitor for the justice department
in Ottawa for nine years. William was also president of the
Island Amusement Co, and a director of the Colonist Printing
& Publishing Co. He retired in 1947 and died in 1951 when
an E&N passenger train hit him at the Johnson St. Bridge.
He had been living at a nursing home for two years and had
wandered away.
1945-46: Contractor Sidney Coxworth (b. Markham,
ON 1865-1951) and Harriet Edith Burton (née Evans, b. ENG
1880-1959) divided the house into apartments. Sidney then
retired, at the age of 82.
1947-50: It was the 10-suite Terrace
Court apartments, owned by Russell and Miriam McTavish.
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
