Heritage Register
Victoria West

225 Skinner Street

Built 1902
Heritage-Designated 1977

For: William & Francis Hardy

Builder: William John Hardy

ARCHITECTURE:

This one-storey Edwardian Queen Anne cottage has a hipped roof and two pedimented gables on the front and left sides. There are small windows in the gables. The very decorative angled bays below the pediments have corner sunburst sandwich brackets and coloured Queen Anne glass in the centre windows. The rear porch on the left has chamfered square posts with scrollwork brackets, a spindle frieze and Eastlake style balusters. The front porch is the same but smaller. There are fishtail shingles in the gables, V-joint T&G on the diagonal in the panels of the lower bays and drop-siding on the body. The original house foundation is stone, with later concrete block on the Catherine St side.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1902-35: Carpenter William “John” Hardy (b. Glen William, ON, 1860-1935) and Frances Jane (b. New York 1857-1924). John came to Victoria in 1900; Frances came to Canada in 1888 and to Victoria in 1899. She was a member of the Maccabees, Victoria Review No.1, WBA for 22 years. The Maccabees conducted her graveside service. John was a member of AOUW and owned 225 Skinner until his death. From 1911-35 his brother Reuben Hardy (b. ENG 1867-1943) lived in 225 with John. Reuben was a labourer, cleaner and salesman, but primarily a tailor. In 1920 carpenter Charles James Hardy, a nephew, also lived at 225. He moved to the USA, but in 1924 returned to marry, then took his wife back to the USA. From 1936-41 Reuben and another William Hardy lived at 221 Skinner next door; Reuben was living alone in 221 when he died.
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OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1936-43: Charles Bertram Fisher (b. Manitoba 1885- 1941) and Lillian Catherine (née Gregory, b. Derbys, ENG, 1891-1944), along with their son, mechanic and truck driver William Duncan Fisher (b. Calgary, AB, 1912-1973) and his wife Jean Clubb (née Stewart, b. Victoria 1912-67). Lillian was living at 211 Skinner when she died.
1944-45: RCN clerk Joseph Leopold and Florence May Courville married in Oak Bay in 1928. Joseph later worked in maintenance for BC Packers. 1946: Painter George and Nina Watt. George had previously owned a trucking business, retiring in 1935.
1947-48: Retired secretary Lewis Joseph and Mary Anne Freeman.
1949-53: Mrs. Verna Lambier, a chocolate dipper at Welch’s.

1960-68: BC Forest millworker Frank Theodore Rhode (b. Metchosin 1918-1995) and Florence Lillian (née Carter, b. London, ENG, 1923). [Note: Frank’s grandfather Joseph Rhode came here from Westphalia, now part of Germany, in 1858. From c.1870-83 he was a grocer, baker and general merchant on Store St. In 1878 he married Catherine Marie Angele “Angeline” Piaggio (b. Happy Valley, Metchosin, 1859-1947). Her parents were from Genoa, Italy, and her father Giulio Piaggio had a store on Store St c.1874-83. In 1884 the Rhodes built a home in Happy Valley, Metchosin. In May 1896 their sons Frank and Joseph survived the Point Ellice Bridge Disaster because they were hanging on the outside of the streetcar, and swam away.] Frank served in the Haldeman Rifles, CA, in WWII from 1941-45 in England, Belgium, Holland and Germany. He met Florence in 1944 and they were married in April 1945 in Morden, south of London, where she’d been raised. They were still in Britain a year later when their son Richard was born. Florence and Richard came to Canada when he was three months old. They lived at the Quarantine Station at William Head, then at Witty’s Farm. They moved into Victoria after Frank got work at the sawmill.

1968-2012: Owner Ronald MacDonald rented it out for many years. He has lived in the house since c.2005.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Vic West History

• Vic West Heritage Register


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