1290 Topaz Avenue

ARCHITECTURE:

This is an Edwardian 1½-storey house with a front-facing gable on Topaz, but the main entrance is on the right side on The Rise (formerly Jones St). Houses at intersections were sometimes given important façades on both aspects. In the gable of the Topaz façade are three windows in a shallow box bay. A full-width verandah sits below the gable. There is an angled bay on the right and a pair of French doors on the left. The verandah has square balusters and a centrally-located, bracketed overhang off the balustrade. The arches and battered posts are similar to those on The Rise. There is a full-width gable on the left side of the house, and on the main floor, a shallow, cantilevered box bay with a small window just below its shed roof. The Rise façade has a pair of gabled dormers separated by a shed roof. The gabled porch, offset below the dormers, has flattened arches and two tapered wooden posts on stone piers; the alustrades are also of stone. On the right side of the front door are small vertical windows, and on the left, on either side of the exterior chimney, are two small, horizontal, leaded art glass windows. The tall brick chimney is shouldered and corbelled. There is a second chimney towards the centre rear. There is a shed-roofed extension at the rear of the house.

The property includes a granite garden wall and a period garage on The Rise. The house has been stuccoed.

Much of the considerable Arts & Crafts interior woodwork is intact and retains its original finishes. This includes a living-dining area divided by an open arch with built-in bookcases, sideboards and cupboards with leaded glass, fireplaces, box-beams and wainscoting. One room was “papered” with leather or snake-skin in the panels. The small entry hall has wainscoting and pierced decoration in the stair balusters.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

1920-32: The 1920 Building Permit shows James McHattie building at this address for $3,000. A 1922 Plumbing Permit bears the same name. This is confirmed by the City Assessment Rolls, which record McHattie making $3,000-worth of improvements to the property (i.e. the house), in 1920/21. Although the style of the house is pre-WWI, the pre-WWI Street Directories do not show houses on this block of Topaz or of The Rise. This address first appears in the 1924 Directory, occupied by James McHattie, foreman of the Pacific Construction Co on Admirals Rd, and later foreman for Baker Brick & Tile Co at Douglas and Tolmie. As McHattie was in construction, he may have had access to architect’s plans, and conceivably held over plans from the 1910s until after the war. James Touch McHattie (b. SCT 1887-1952) and Bella Fraser (née Sheret, b. SCT 1887-1973) arrived in Canada in 1906 and 1913 respectively, and were married in Victoria in 1914. Bella was working as a saleswoman when they married. Later they lived at 1681 Keating Cross Rd until their deaths.

OTHER OCCUPANTS:

1933-39: Owners/renters included: Henry and Jane Jones; Henry was a Victoria City policeman. Music teacher Alma Beryle (née Hayton) and Cecil Merrit Bradley, manager for Prudential Life Assurance, married in Vancouver in 1933. Dr. William J. Endicott, his wife Viola M., and daughter Mary, who was a school teacher. Inga (née Steffanson) and Leo Eugene Evenden, credit manager for HBC. Blanche (née Sampson) and Harry Skellett Bentham, a meatcutter at Cross’s Stores Ltd and later a butcher at James Bay Meat Market.

1940-44: John Trevelyan Gawthrop (b. London, ENG 1894-1955) and Marie Josephine (née Costigan, b. Calgary, AB 1893-1965). John was a Relief Investigator for the BC Government and then business manager for Colquitz Mental Home until his death.

1945: Ann and John J. Jamison, who was employed at VMD during WWII.

1946-2010: Sydney Robert Lewis Ernest Alfred Tribe Knott (b. Calgary, AB 1908-1982) and Muriel Clarice (née Rogers, b. Sudbury, ON 1914-2010) married in Victoria in 1930. The Knotts had four children: Lewis, Clarice, Sylvia and Helene. Sydney operated and worked in several gas stations including Knott & Elford Service Gas & Oil at 2664 Douglas, later the Humber Green BA station. He had retired by 1968. Muriel continued to live in the house until shortly before her death in 2010.