ARCHITECTURE:
This front-gabled Craftsman Bungalow has double-coursed shingle cladding, while the gable has pebbledash stucco with simple vertical half-timbered detail. The open front porch has square chamfered and moulded posts on cut granite piers, a double row of vertical spindles for the balustrade, and later concrete steps to the right side. The door is simple with six small bevelled lights. The left [north] side has a gabled projection. The main windows are three part with fixed central sash and flanking double-hung sashes with multi-panes above single panes. There is an art glass window on each side of the fireplace on the north side, with a clinker brick chimney above. The bungalow has very distinctive door and window trim with tapering sides and a pediment above, which adds a great deal of dignity. There is a large almost-flat-roofed dormer on the south slope of the roof.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
This house was built for J.G. and Mary Davies, who may have only lived here briefly as Esther Ostrander, a widow, was living here by 1914.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Dr. Frank Millwood Bryant (1885-1964), a physician and surgeon with offices on Douglas St, was here by 1917 and lived here until the late 1920s. Born in Russell, MB, Frank came to Victoria in 1911 after attaining his medical degree and worked as an intern at St. Joseph’s Hospital. He was later appointed chief of medical staff there in 1938. He was president of Victoria Medical Society in 1931, and was also president of the BC division of the Canadian Medical Association. The Victoria Medical Society honoured him in 1961 after practising medicine in Victoria for over 50 years. He married Elizabeth Rosine Schoonover (1889-1962), of Port Townsend, WA, c.1911-12.
Hugh Alexander (1874-1931) and Ina Patterson bought the house c.1930, but only lived here briefly as Hugh died of stomach cancer. Born in County Down, Ireland, he came to Canada in 1902 and farmed until 1919 when he came to BC. He worked as a druggist in Duncan and then operated the Buena Vista Hotel in the Cowichan Valley before coming to Victoria in 1927.
Francis Xavier O’Neill, a clerk with the BCCSS, lived here with his wife Mary in 1933-34. Policeman Piercy H. Brown and his wife Iris lived here in the late 1930s. Ina Patterson lived again in the house c.1941-early 1950s.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee
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