2103 Fernwood Rd

ARCHITECTURE:

This is a two-storey, hipped-roof Italianate / Queen Anne residence. There are pedimented gabled two-storey bays, angled on the front and square on the right side. The cresting and finials on both pediments have been restored. There is a shed-roofed dormer on the rear. There are eaves brackets under the main roof and under the pent roof of the beltcourse, which separates the two floors. Most of the windows are two-over-two double-hung sashes. There is clear Queen Anne glass in the centre window of the lower right bay, and coloured glass in the transom above and the folly to the left of the front door. There is also coloured Queen Anne glass in the stairway window on the left side. The small ornate front entry porch shows off the original owner’s carpentry skills. It is surmounted by a small hipped roof and balcony which is decorated with cresting and acorn finials. The porch has two heavy square turned and fluted posts and two pilasters. There are scrollsawn brackets between the posts and the pilasters and a spindlework frieze above. The sawn balustrade has the same detail as the widow’s walk, which has not been restored. There are decorative shingles in the pediments and drop siding on the body of the house.

From 1990-2004 the house was gradually rehabilitated by four sets of owners. The major work included removal of 1950s aluminum siding and reconstructing window frames and the beltcourse. VHF researchers, working on the first edition of This Old House Volume One in 2002 located the c.1900 photo from descendants of the original family. This enabled the most recent owners to reconstruct the front porch and some of the roof details.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1890-1940: The Hodgson family. Assessments on improvements for this property started at $150 in 1889, and rose to $1,000 in 1897. Hutchinson presumably built it in stages, when he had time and money for materials. The old cabin with the very early window, attached to the back of the house, is not original to the property.

Hutchinson Hodgson (1856-1936) was a cabinetmaker, carpenter, builder and contractor. For over three decades he also bred prize brahma chickens in his back yard. He and his wife Martha Ann (née Birch, b. Yorkshire, ENG, 1859-1932) came to Canada in 1886. They were Spiritualists. Hutchinson’s funeral service was conducted by Court Northern Light, AOF, the Foresters. Their daughter Margaret married carpenter James Henry Patrick Anderton in 1909. Their son Vincent “Vinnie” (1890-1970), a plumber, lived with his parents from 1928. Vinnie married Etta Pollard about 1941.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1933-40: The Hodgsons’ youngest child Elizabeth “Lizzie” (1892-1979) and her husband, plumber Edward Robert Irvine (b. Victoria, 1892-1968). They married in 1913, when he was an assistant plumbing inspector for the city. [Note: Edward’s mother’s parents, seafarer and miner James and Mary Ann Shields had emigrated from Portsmouth, England, by July 1864 as two of their children were baptised in Victoria, at that time.] Edward and Lizzie tried ranching out along the Sooke Rd in the early 1920s, but Edward went back to plumbing and eventually became a foreman with VMD.

1941-45: Donald John Scafe (b. Highland District, BC, 1883-1955) was a blacksmith for 56 years. In 1905 he had married Daisy Viola Marguerite Wale. Donald and Daisy divorced and she married twice more, declaring herself a widow each time. In 1943 Lillias Esther Viola Morgan, Donald and Daisy’s daughter, was living with him.

1946-77: Francis James “Frank” Waters (b.1884) and Ruth Matilda (née Green, b. London, ENG, 1885-1986) bought the house in 1946. They were retired farmers from Biggar, SK. They came to Canada in 1910 from England, and lived in Saskatoon in 1911 before establishing their farm. Frank worked as a carpenter in Victoria. [Note: When their son and daughter-in-law Frank and Christine Waters moved out from Winnipeg, they slept in the large dining room and Frank and Ruth slept in the front parlour. Both those rooms had fireplaces and they found the bedrooms upstairs too cold. In 1947, Frank and Christine moved to Sidney, but they always came back for the May Day celebrations: they attended the parade downtown in the the morning, the Gorge canoe races in the afternoon and the candlelight parade downtown in the evening. In between, they went home for lunch and dinner, so as not to spend too much money. Streetcars made this possible for many people. * information from Christine Waters, 2003]