ARCHITECTURE:
This hip-roofed Arts & Crafts Bungalow is one-storey at the front, two stories at the rear, with a gabled extension on the right front. There is a hip-roofed dormer on the rihjt side to the rear of the gable, the roof of which is continuous with the main hip. Sharply-pointed rafter tails are exposed around the house and dormer. Beneath the dormer is a shallow, cantilevered box bay with a tripartite window and there is another shallow box bay on the left side. The front gable sits on two knee brackets and is stuccoed and half-timbered above the string course with two single-paned windows below; there is a side-facing front entry on the left side of the gabled extension. The windows are double-hung sashes; the cladding is double-coursed shingles; the foundation and front steps are concrete. Arts & Crafts features include cobblestone chimneys, exposed rafter tails, wide eaves, and knee brackets. This is a relatively rare example of a 1920s A&C bungalow. Plans at City Hall indicate that the gabled extension was originally an open porch with a curved arch and entry on the right side off the driveway; there is no record of when this was enclosed.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1922-31: The bungalow was built by carpenter/contractor Cecil Harold Gray (b. London, ENG 1892-1962) for himself and wife Hazel Winnifred (née Whittaker, b. Victoria 1892-1957), who married here in 1914. The 1911 census lists Cecil and his brother Laurence G. as fruit growers on a Nanaimo farm with parents John and Eleanor Gray. The family immigrated to Canada from ENG in 1908. Later in 1911 the family was living at 2826 Blackwood and John and Cecil worked as carpenters and contractors. That year father and son built two houses at Blackwood and Montrose including 2821 Blackwood. Cecil built his own house at 1231 Montrose in 1922, and Laurence lived nearby at 1211 Vista Heights.
Hazel Gray was a descendant of the Whittaker family, builders of several Victoria homes, including five at 1203 to 1221 Yukon St, and of the pioneer Irvine family of Rose Bank Farm on Cedar Hill Rd in Saanich. In 1992 BC Heritage Trust published “Poetry of Hazel Winnifred Gray,” a collection of over two hundred poems that provide valuable insight into history and life of local pioneers.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1932-56: Arthur Petch (b. Conway, WAL, 1891-1975) and Ozella Zoeve (née Thomson, b. Revelstoke, BC, 1895-1976). Arthur was in the Militia, the 88th Regiment Victoria Fusiliers, when he enlisted in the CEF in 1915, and was soon a platoon sergeant. Four of his brothers also signed up, and his father was in the Saanich Home Guard. One of the brothers, Ernest Petch, a singer, was asked to join the Maple Leaves, who entertained the troops on the front lines. Arthur rose through the ranks to lieutenant, and received the Military Medal for gallantry in action in June 1916. When he returned from WWI in 1919, Arthur and Ozella were married at Sluggett Memorial Baptist Church in Saanich. Ozella’s mother was Anne Mary Sluggett, a member of the pioneer farming family that settled near
Brentwood Bay. Arthur worked as a plumber.
1959-2012: Jack Young Gillies (b. Victoria, 1923-2004) married Thelma Ethel (née Amos b. Tisdale, SK 1921-2018) in 1950. Jack served overseas in WWII with the RCAF, 425 Alouette Squadron as a rear gunner. He joined City of Victoria Fire Department in 1949 and retired in 1983 as Assistant Chief. Jack and Thelma were members of Hallmark Heritage Society for many years.