Heritage Register
Victoria West

420-22 Langford Street

Built 1912
Heritage-Registered

For: George & Matilda Gawley

Builder: George Gawley

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a one-storey Vernacular Bungalow. It has a low-pitched bellcast hipped roof with four dormers, three with bellcast hipped roofs. The fourth on the right side was increased in size and height and has a shed roof. There is a wide angled bay on the left front with a basement entry below, and a cantilevered angled bay on the left side. The recessed entry porch with its two entrances has chamfered square supports and narrow stepped stairwell balustrades. The siding is double-bevelled. There is a concrete foundation and a tall exterior brick through-the-roof wall chimney. The house was duplexed in 1946.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1912-40: George Gawley (b. Co Down, IRL, 1855-1939) came to Victoria in 1879 and worked as a teamster, hackdriver, drayman and building contractor. Matilda (née Shier, b. Kincardine, ON, 1860-1940), who was of Irish parentage, came to Victoria in 1881 and married George that year. They had seven children: Teamster and labourer William James; physical director Thomas Henry moved to Portland, OR; George Shier died at two in 1888 of scarlet fever; Joseph Francis moved to Harrison Hot Springs, BC, where he was proprietor of Joe’s Auto Camp; Dorcas “Ada”; Benjamin moved to Berkeley, CA. George retired as a contractor many years before his death. Matilda was a charter member of James Bay United Church WA and an active member of Victoria West Methodist, then United Church. She died at home on her 80th birthday.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1940-77: The Gawleys’ eldest daughter Laura Matilda (1893-1991) worked as a stenographer before and after her marriage. In 1923 in this house she married mechanic Gordon Edward Weismiller (b. Genoa Bay, BC, 1894-1969) who came to Victoria in 1917. Laura and Gordon owned the house after her mother’s death. Gordon worked for Moore & Whittington, then 11 years in HMC Dockyard’s machine shop, retiring in 1963. He was a past master of Britannia Lodge No.73, AF&AM.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Vic West History

• Vic West Heritage Register



• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume One: Fernwood & Victoria West