Heritage Register
Victoria West

539 Northcott Street
(ex-Burleith Pl, 521 Northcott St)

Built 1912-13
Heritage-Designated 2008

For: Ramus & Nikoline Sorensen

Builder: Ramus Sorensen

ARCHITECTURE:

This 1½-storey, front-gabled Edwardian Vernacular Arts & Crafts house has only one side dormer. The recessed wall of the gable is fronted by a sleeping porch. The porch, which rests on a pent roof, has a balustrade between two chamfered posts which support its pedimented roof. The main floor has two shallow box bays separated by the recessed front entrance. Below the side dormer there is another shallow box bay. The steep stairs have been replaced with an offset stairway with a landing. The wooden windows have been replaced with vinyl. The pedimented gable, the side gable and the foundation are shingled; the body is clad in bevelled siding.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1913-24: Mason, plasterer and builder Ramus Sorensen (b. Ropdrup? Denmark, 1857) and Nichelina “Line” (b. Haksholm? Denmark, 1857). The family lived in Omaha, Nebraska, from c.1888-1903. By 1917, daughter Esther Dora was a milliner, then a stenographer with Griffith Co, then Gillespie Hart & Todd. The Sorensens visited Denmark in 1915, landing at Ellis Island, NY, in July on their way back to Victoria. Another daughter, Agnes, possibly married and remained in Nebraska.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1927-30: E&N fireman and engineer Harry Jenner. He moved to 1620 Store St near the E&N station.
1931-34: William Oliphant (b. Jersey City, NJ, 1885-1957), a Camosun Golf Course employee, then a real estate salesman, and Mira Lenore (née McGregor, b. Maisonville, QC, 1887-1960) married in Victoria in 1912.
1936-49: Carpenter and plasterer Louis Herbert Jarvis (b. North Walsham, Norfolk, ENG, 1890-1978) and Jane (née Prior, b. Newsham, Northumberland, ENG, 1894-1961) married in Victoria in 1915.
1950-51: Walter McWilliams and Sarah Caroline Roberts. Walter, a locomotive engineer who retired in 1948, was the proprietor of Alkazar Mansions in Fairfield.
1951-52: Marjorie Wescombe, widow of retired storekeeper Herbert James.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Vic West History

• Vic West Heritage Register


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