ARCHITECTURE:
This is a single-storey, hip-roofed Queen Anne cottage. There has been an addition of a shed-roofed dormer on the right side. It has two bracketed cutaway bays on the front with their own pyramidal hipped roofs. A small entry porch between the bays has a narrow archway which is continuous with the brackets of the bays. The archway has drop finials. The front steps have low, sloped balustrades. The house is clad in drop siding, with vertical siding below the water table. The original front door has been replaced.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Owners: The Noels, Coles and Pikes together purchased property on Pembroke and built three houses side by side, originally 83, 85 and 87 North Pembroke (83 has been demolished and 87 was stuccoed, but it survives as 1353 Pembroke.) Initially Mark Pike (1861-1944) and Susannah “Lillie” (née Gordon, 1863-1924) lived in 83, Frederick Cole (1854-1903) and Emma (née Knight, 1857-1932) in 85 (1347), and John Frederick Noel (1842-1922) and Emily (née Sparks, 1864-1914) in 87. The three men were all Master Mariners; they and their families came from Harbor Grace, Nfld, in 1889-90. They were part of the extensive local community whose descendants founded the Newfoundland Club in 1936.
John Noel, the eldest of the captains, paid the assessments on 1347 at least until 1916, but the Noels lived at 1353. In 1907 he built a new house or houses at 2026 and 2028 Stanley St, on the corner lot beside 1353 and they moved into 2026. There Emily met an accidental death in 1914. Emily was John’s second wife, as the 1891 census lists seven children, five by a first wife. In 1908 their son Lancelot Bennett was a bookkeeper with Moore & Whittington; he became a tugboat operator.
1891-1910: Fred Cole was master of the sealer Theresa in 1892. In 1901, his sister Francis “Fanny” Cole, a nurse, lodged with the Coles [in 1909 she lived at 2008 Chambers St, Fernwood]. His wife Emma lived here after Fred’s death until 1910, then roomed with their daughter, music teacher Euphemia Eileen “Effie”, and her husband Arthur Hartnel Shotbolt, who married in 1910. Emma and Fred’s son Llewellyn Frederick, a chauffeur and pianist, also lived with Effie in 1912. By 1921 Emma Cole was a confectioner at Oak Bay Junction, living at 1353 Pembroke. When Emma died, Mark Pike, last survivor of the friends, was one of her pallbearers.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1911-44: Although John Noel paid the taxes on this house, Lillie and Mark Pike lived at 1347 Pembroke for decades. [Note: Lillie’s sister Mary married carpenter Robert Brown and lived at 1330 Pembroke from 1893 to at least 1943.] Mark Pike, a “steamboatman,” worked for Victoria Sealing Co for many years and was port captain for ten years at Hecate on Vancouver Island’s west coast. Mark lived at 1347 Pembroke with their daughter Mary “Florence” Pike (1892-1983) until his death. Florence was secretary of the Newfoundland Club for many years. Their son Arthur Pike (1893-1926) was a clerk at BC Electric and still residing in the house when he died.
1945-46: Empress Hotel baker Gilbert and Elizabeth McCulloch.
1947-48: Standard Furniture Co engineer George Edward and Myrtle Emily Conrad.
1949-55: Nastor Alex Johnson (b. Grunsjon, Mebelpad, Sweden, 1893-1955) and Ida Christina (née Olsen/Anderson, b. Helsinglund, Sweden, 1896-1972) came to Canada in 1916 and to Victoria in 1947. Alex worked at Victoria Bed & Mattress Co, then at Harbour Sawmills, and was a log deck man at Mannings Timber Products when he died.
1955-72: Ida Johnson continued to live here after Alex’s death, until her own death.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume One: Fernwood & Victoria West