ARCHITECTURE:
This house is a superb example of a side-gabled Craftsman Arts & Crafts home with a large gabled dormer on the second level. It features a full-width covered porch resting on battered rubble stone masonry piers. It also displays triangular knee braces under the roof eaves and carved rafter ends. The walls are sheathed with alternating wide and narrow courses of wood shingles. The interior contains a beautifully preserved living room, dining room and front hall with original exposed woodwork. This was the first interior designation of a private residence in the City of Victoria.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
This house was built for Robert Kidney of Alberta. William Kidney, a farmer from Bankhead, AB, paid the assessments for the next two years. It appears to have been a rental property and was subsequently home to many families. Retired jeweller and optician Milton Daniel White (1868-1940) lived here in 1917 with his wife, Hilda Pearl. Born in Orono, ON, Milton came to BC in 1897 and established a business in Grand Forks. He was mayor of Grand Forks in 1901 and retired to Victoria in 1914. George Franklin (1863-1939) and Mary Elizabeth (Tilden, 1873-1963) Lockwood lived here in the early 1920s. George was a native of Delaware, ON, and a farmer in Saskatchewan for 40 years. The Lockwoods retired to BC in 1919, and moved to Vancouver by the late 1920s.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Newlyweds William Thomas (1894-1980) and Alice Mae (Stokes, 1894-1962) Straith lived here in 1926. Born in Innerkip, ON, William was educated in Ontario and Saskatchewan before coming to Victoria with his family in 1913. He served overseas with the 11th Field Ambulance as a stretcher-bearer in WWI. William earned his law degree by correspondence from the University of Manitoba three years after the war. He won the Victoria seat in the BC Legislature in 1937 and held it until 1953, serving as Minister of Education for a number of years. Alice was born in Whitewood, SK, and came to Victoria in 1914. She married William in 1925. After she died in 1962, William was remarried to Christine Jean Ross.
By 1929 John Bunyan (1892-1954) and Lillian Margaretta (Sjodin) Munro were the occupants. John Munro was born in Embro, ON, attended Guelph Agricultural College, earned an MA from UBC in 1930, and a PhD from the University of Ottawa in 1945 for his research on aboriginal languages. John married Lillian, of Notch Hill, BC, in Victoria in 1924, and served as BC’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the Government for 22 years, retiring in 1951.
Frederick William Walter (1878-1960) and his wife Emily Venville (Smith, 1892-1966) lived here in 1931. Frederick was born in England and came to Victoria in 1900. He was a postal employee who served overseas during WWI. Retirees Alexander and Grace McCallum lived here in 1933-34. By 1937, John (1878-1951) and Jane (Baron, 1886-1939) Rowland were the residents. The Rowlands came to Canada from Great Britain in 1910 and to Victoria in 1925. John served during WWI and worked in circulation at the Victoria Daily Colonist.
George (1870-1966) and Nina (Cunningham, 1877-1973) Watt lived here in the early 1940s. They came to Canada from Scotland in 1912. George ran a trucking business and retired to Victoria in 1935. Thomas Henry (1916-1985) and Stella Rose Mary (Wallace) Chandler lived here in the mid-to-late 1940s. Thomas was a corporal with the RCN. Born in Ponoka, AB, Thomas joined the RCN in 1937 and served on many ships until receiving his discharge in 1958. He subsequently served with the Canadian Coast Guard until retiring in 1978. Alice Stewart (McCreath) Hamilton (65 Government St, James Bay), the widow of Eric Hamilton (1017 & 1021 Catherine St, Vic West), bought the house in 1950. Members of the family still own and live in the house.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee
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