Heritage Register
Victoria West

340 Wilson Street
(ex-Esquimalt St; Old Esquimalt Rd; 315 Wilson St)

Built c. 1890
Heritage-Designated 1985

For: William & Elizabeth Peddle

ARCHITECTURE:

This symmetrical, 1½ storey Queen Anne cottage has a steeply-pitched hipped roof with a bellcast hip-roofed cupola at its peak. A tall gabled roof dormer on the front has a drop finial, the top of which has been removed. Angled hipped roofs on either side of the dormer sit like turrets above two angled bays in the verandah. The full-width, hip-roofed front verandah has a pedimented gable over the entry. The verandah has turned posts with brackets, a spindle frieze, and an Eastlake balustrade. The cupola, a standard feature of elaborate Italianate Villa houses, eg: Gyppeswyk, at 1040 Moss St in Rockland, is an unusual find on this modest dwelling.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1890-1920: William Peddle (b. Great Misden, ENG, 1839-1925) and Elizabeth (née Meade, b. ENG 1837-1907) came to Halifax in 1872 and Victoria in June 1887. William was variously a commercial traveller, labourer, asphalter and curve oiler for the BCER. When Elizabeth died, the Victoria Times described her as “an earnest worker in the Victoria West Methodist church,” which was just east of this house at the NW corner of Catherine and Wilson Sts. William Sr was still in the house and working as a BCER signalman at 80, but resided in Saanich near his son at the time of his death.

Their offspring: Edith Anne (b. Halifax, NS, 1875) married Danish sealer Christian “Emil” Ramlose in 1893 in Vic West Methodist. Emil was a captain when he died in Gravenhurst, ON, in 1907 aged 43. Edith Ramlose then moved back into this house with her father, as her mother had died two months before Emil. Her daughters Norma Beatrice and Gladys Elaine lived with them, and Edith worked as a steno with Samuel Arthur Baird, real estate & insurance broker. She left Victoria by 1914 and later moved to California.

Elizabeth Beatrice Peddle (1878-1925) married accountant Stanley McBraire Smith in 1904. In 1901 Elizabeth was living with Edith and Emil, and working as a clerk in Spencer’s department store for $300 a year. [Stanley’s father was BC Deputy Minister of Finance in 1901.] William Peddle Jr was a customs officer for 33 years, then secretary-treasurer of Sidney Waterworks District for 10 years, retiring in 1957. He later resided at 1270 Yates St, Fernwood, until his death.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1921-69: Charles Ernest David Rose (b. Surrey, ENG, 1876-1951) and Mercy (née Fogden, b. Sussex, ENG, 1874-1954) emigrated to Moose Jaw, SK, in 1904, then came to Victoria in 1918. Charles was a blacksmith with the CPR, E&N and CNR until retiring in 1943. Their son Richard James was an E&N operator and engineer, Daughter Evelyn Muriel (1913-1963) worked at Hill’s Corner Supply Store, then as an HBC clerk, and lived in the house until her death. BC government steno Millicent L. (b.1910) was living in the house with her sister Evelyn, but left by 1969.

1969-86: Ollie and Sirkka Sarakannas.
1986-2002: Their son Peter and his wife Shelley. Peter and Shelley won a Hallmark Society Award in 1996 for their restoration of the exterior and interior of the house.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• Vic West History

• Vic West Heritage Register


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