ARCHITECTURE:
This 1½-storey Edwardian Vernacular A&C (EVA&C) house has a front-facing gable, a recessed corner porch to the left and large gabled dormers on both sides. To the right is a large tripartite window with an art glass transom above the fixed middle sash. The lower and upper portions are shingled and narrow bevelled siding is used on the main level as well as the dormers. Porch supports are moulded and chamfered square posts with a solid shingled balustrade. The front gable contains a semi-recessed balcony with a shingled balustrade as well as a pair of windows and a door. To each side of the upper porch is a lozenge-shaped window for the closets, and above is a louvred vent echoing the shape. On the left side on the main floor there is a box bay and on the right, an angled bay. Gable finials have become keystones.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
This was one of several speculative houses built by Walter Bradley Revercomb (1537 Gladstone Av, Fernwood) during the pre-WWI building boom. The design is very similar to Revercomb’s house at 1774 Denman (1910).
The house was sold to Gideon (1868-1958) and Lillian Letitia (Armson, 1877-1966) Hicks, who lived here until the early 1930s. Born in England, Gideon came to BC in the late 1890s. In 1901 he married Lillian, a native of Ontario who came to Victoria in 1896. Gideon was manager of Hicks & Lovick Piano Co. He taught music from the late 1920s until he retired in 1957.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Donald (1882-1967) and Ina (Paris) McDiarmid were the next owners of the house, until c.1950. Born in Stirling Scotland, Donald was a veteran of the Boer War before he came to Canada in 1905. He came to Victoria from Calgary, AB, with his family c.1917. Donald was a laundryman by trade and in Victoria he managed the laundry department at the Royal Jubilee Hospital until his retirement in 1942. He was a Freemason.
His son Donald Jr. McDiarmid (1905-1961) was born in Medicine Hat, AB. He was BC Queen’s Printer from 1946 until his death in 1961.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee
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