Heritage Register
Victoria West

222 Mary Street

Built pre-1882
Heritage Covenant 1999

For: Edward & Margaret Wilkinson

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a front-gabled brick Homestead House with returns on the front gable. There are two gables on the left side and a single one on the right. The front has a prominent wide angled bay under a decorative shingled pent roof. The inset front porch has two turned posts, turned balusters, and a panelled front door with transom and sidelights. There is a shingled shed roof over the porch, topped by a horizontal wooden lintel echoing those over the windows. In 2000 the back kitchen wing was removed to make way for a condo project behind the house. The main portion of the house was restored, but with vinyl windows.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

Owners: c.1890-96: Civil engineer Edward Hooper Wilkinson (b. Suffolk, ENG, 1865-1940) and Margaret Killenback Shires (b. Leeds, Yorks, ENG, 1867-1950) married in Victoria in 1889. Edward, the eldest son of Dr. Thomas E. Wilkinson, Church of England Bishop of Northern & Central Europe, immigrated to Canada c.1884. He became a draughtsman for the CPR in Montreal, then worked 30 years for them in various locations, including on the E&N. Edward retired in 1921. They had lived 23 years in Wellington, BC, when he stepped in front of a passing truck and died in hospital in Nanaimo.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

Owners: 1897-1910: John Clayton (b. Belton, Leics, ENG, c.1842-1910), a prosperous Bella Coola merchant and land owner, died in San Diego, CA, but was buried in Victoria, where he owned much property.

1911-16: Loma “Ella” (née Weldon, b. St. John, NB, 1868-1951) and William James Mable (b. Thorold, ON, 1860-1938) married in Victoria in 1891. A blacksmith by trade, William was a prominent carriage builder for many years. They rented out 222 Mary and lived at 223 Russell St from c.1894-1940. Ella lived in the late 1940s at Oakmeade, 1301 Rockland Av, with her daughter Pearl Ethel and husband, building contractor Henry Meadows Cowper, who married in 1914.

Tenants: 1909: Samuel John and Ann Maria Waldron came to Victoria from England in 1888. After his discharge from the Royal Navy, Sam was one of the first BCER conductors. After the Waldrons returned from some time in Dawson, Sam worked in the city maintenance department and then as janitor and engineer at the city police headquarters for 18 years. Sam published the story of his life the year before his death.

1912-14: Thomas and Ann Hunt. Thomas was a labourer for Sir John Jackson whose company was building the Odgen Point Breakwater (James Bay); he was later a farmer. Their daughter Fannie was a packer at Popham Biscuit Factory, later Ormond’s Biscuits, up the street. 1915: E&N machinist and shop foreman Harry and Violetta Barber.
1917-21: Blacksmith’s helper Robert and Rosetta Holdcroft. Robert may have worked for William Mable.

1923-25: E&N machinist William and Helen Wallace.

Owners: 1926-54: John Geoghegan (b. IRL, 1859-1948) and Johanna Beatrice (née Clarke, b. Scotland, 1870-1945). John was newly retired from the RCMP and RNWMP. Their son Gordon (b. MacLeod, AB, 1907-1971) never married and was a swamper at Old English Beverage Co. A neighbour recalls that each summer Johanna hung John’s old scarlet tunic and pillbox hat for airing on the clothes line.

1954-75: George Kelman (b. Dundee, SCT, 1880-1957) and Catherine Lawson (née Davie, b. Dundee, SCT, 1880-1975). Catherine was involved in women’s suffrage and was a friend of Emily Carr. George drove a truck, had a contract for garbage collection in James Bay, and retired as a VMD employee in 1946.

c.1976-2012: The Kelmans’ great, great grandson Gordon Stubbs and his wife Beverley bought the property from the Kelman estate and started their family here. They have owned it as a rental property since c.1980.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Vic West History

• Vic West Heritage Register


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