ARCHITECTURE:
This is a front-gabled, 1½-storey, shingled Arts & Crafts (A&C) house with large gabled dormers on both sides. There is a shallow, cantilevered box bay under the eaves on the left side of the house. On the right side is a hip-roofed box bay, and beyond that, a hip-roofed rear extension. On the front façade is now a shed-roofed verandah with a gabled extension on its left; the extension sits over the garage. Many of the A&C features have been lost. The original façade had an unusual shingled inset corner porch on the left, which was enclosed in the 1970s, and then the verandah extension was constructed. The balcony below the double front windows underneath the string course has been removed.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1906-60: Fred Davey (b. Camborne, Cornwall, ENG c.1871-1946) and Ada (née Hall, b. Binbrook, ON c.1876-1960) married in 1898. Fred came to Victoria in 1880, Ada with her family in 1890. They raised their five children, Herbert, Jack, Bob, Margaret and Catherine, in this home. In 1888 Fred joined the post office staff, and in 1890 was transferred to the statistical branch of the customs service. In 1897 he was sent to the Yukon with John Godson to establish a customs post at Tagish, to apply duties on goods carried by prospectors. That year he was promoted to computing clerk, and in 1904, to the office of surveyor. In 1907 he was sent to Prince Rupert, BC, to set up another customs office. In 1922, he became Collector of Customs and Revenue, after the retirment of John Cowper Newbury of 140 Government St, James Bay.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Two: James Bay
Recent Comments