ARCHITECTURE:
This 2½-storey, front-gabled Homestead house has two shingled, shed-roofed dormers. Three windows in the upper gable sit above three wider windows on the second floor; the large middle window has an unusual muntin pattern. A hip-roofed, full-width front verandah shelters an angled bay on the left and the entry door with sidelights on the right. The verandah is supported by pairs of Tuscan columns on a solid balustrade; the wider balustrade on the left has a central panel of sawn balusters. In the gable at the rear is a window identical to the one in the front gable. All the opening windows on the house are one-over-one sashes with horns. The house is clad in double-bevelled siding, with shingles on the basement level; the foundation is concrete.
In January 2016 this house and its neighbour, now 226 Dallas, were moved by Nickel Brothers from Michigan St to the Inner Harbour by truck, then barged to the east of Ogden Point on Dallas Rd. If they had been moved by trucks alone, many utility lines would have had to be moved, and many trees majorly pruned. TC, 21 Jan 2016, pg A4, by Carla Wilson: “On Tuesday [Jan 19th], a truck hauled the two houses through Victoria to a waterfront site near the Janion on Store Street, where they were loaded onto a barge that was towed [at 3:45 a.m.] to a quiet spot in Esquimalt Harbour overnight. On Wednesday morning, the barge pulled into Ogden Point, where a temporary bridge consisting of huge beams was installed close to the waiting lots. ‘There were a few strong gusts of wind on the barge as it came around Ogden Point, but thanks to some quick manoeuvring by the tug boats, all went well,’ said Karen Jawl of Jawl Properties…..Trucks slowly moved the houses off the barge, one by one, stopping every few seconds to make sure they were in the correct position. Moving-truck wheels can move independently, allowing workers to make sure they remained on the beams while crossing over the bridge.”
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Owners: 1911-c.41: Charles Frederick Beaven (see 226 Dallas) built 526 Michigan in 1911-12 for his daughter Mary Ella, on the E part of City Lot 1734, beside the house at 524 Michigan, (now 226 Dallas) on the W part of the lot, which Charles had moved from Superior St in 1910. Ella never lived in 526, but instead used it as a rental property. Mary “Ella” Beaven (b. Charlottetown, PEI 1869-1944; she was the daughter of Charles and his first wife Mary Gillis) married Thomas Brennan Macabe (b. Hamilton, ON 1862-1918) in 1894 in Victoria, and they lived at 113 Simcoe St in James Bay – it became 406 in 1907 – until their deaths. Thomas apprenticed as a printer in Hamilton, then worked in London, ON, and later for the Winnipeg Free Press. He came to Victoria in 1884 and worked for D.W. Higgins, owner of the Daily Colonist, eventually becoming manager of the job printing department. Thomas was involved with a variety of sports, and was a member of Victoria and Columbia Lodge, AF&AM, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and Knights of Pythias.
Ella Macabe owned both 524 and 526 Michigan from 1911 until 1916, when Charles Beaven became the owner of 526 Michigan on the E part of lot 1734, now 222 Dallas. In the 1920s he lived in the older house at 524 on W lot 1734, now 226 Dallas, which Ella owned. However, when Charles died in 1926, he was living in 526; 526 was then inherited by his grandson, Thomas Henry Macabe (b. Victoria 1899-d. Contra Costa, CA 1994). In 1920 Thomas lived with his widowed mother Ella at 406 Simcoe, and worked as a clerk in the Bank of Commerce; his address on assessments from 1926 on continued to be 406 Simcoe. In 1937 Thomas signed a Registered Owner of Land Agreement for Sale with Frederick Vincent and Mabel L. Banks; they paid off the property and Thomas’s name was finally crossed off 28th October 1941.
City Directories list a tenant in this house in 1913, so she lived here at least by the end of 1912; however, assessments don’t show a second house or improvement on Lot 1734 until 1915, which means that the lucky owner, Ella, didn’t have to pay tax on the house for two years after it was built, although she was already collecting rent!
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
Tenants: 1912-15: Widow Jennie Hall (née Woods, b. ON 1868-1936) operated it as a boarding house. She left Victoria by 1917 and died in Vancouver.
1917-20: Widow Margaret Evelyn Gilchrist (née Balcom, b. NS c.1876). She married Colin Alexander Gilchrist (b. Orillia, ON 1876-1901), a plasterer, in Rossland, BC in 1897, but he died at 25 of phthisis pulmonalis or pulmonary consumption. She died out of province.
1921-24: Charles James Leach, his wife Elizabeth Alverta “Verta” (née O’Brian), and their sons Robert Leach, a shipper with Woolworths, and Goldwin Charles “Goldie” Leach (b. Millbrook, ON 1901-1953), a motor mechanic who, at the time of the 1921 census, had been earning $1,000 a year as a police constable in Brandon, MB; his death certificate, filed in Vancouver, stated that he had been an electrical mechanic all his life. Goldie married in 1924 while living in this house, to May Nelson from Belfast, IR. Goldie’s parents had also been born in Millbrook, ON.
1925: Maud Adeline Heatherbell, a musician, was separated from her husband George Heatherbell, whom she had married in 1908; both were widowed at the time.
1926: Charles Beaven is listed as the resident.
1927-30: Frederick James Popham (b. Devonshire, ENG 1872-1958) and his wife Emma Elizabeth (née Lisk, b. Beeton, ON 1871-1962). Frederick was a waiter at the Poodle Dog Café, and later a janitor for the BC Government. He eventually became Chief Janitor of the BC Parliament Buildings until his retirement in the late 1930s. Fred was a member of Camosun Lodge, AF&AM. Emma came to Victoria in 1904.
1931-32: Frances Ellen (née Grafton, b. Bruce Co, ON, 1866-1950) Squire and her son, electrician Aubrey. Another son and electrician, Marvin, lived next door at 524 Michigan (226 Dallas). Frances was the widow of Joseph Nixon Squire.
1931-32: Frances Ellen (née Grafton, b. Bruce Co, ON, 1866-1950) Squire and her son, electrician Aubrey. Another son and electrician, Marvin, lived next door at 524 Michigan (226 Dallas). In 1920-28, Frances lived at 506 Government St, James Bay.
1935-40: Albert Wardman (b. Yorkshire, ENG 1877-1970) and Florie (née Cowthra, b. Yorkshire, ENG 1881-1980) came from England in 1905, and farmed at Perdue, SK, until 1932. They then moved to Victoria to find work during the Depression. Albert was a salesman for Suncrest Products for some years. Florie was a long-time member of the Victoria Truth Centre.
Owners 1937/1941-48: Frederick Vincent Banks (b. Leeds, Yorkshire, ENG 1881-1962) and Mabel Lillian (née Ratcliffe b. Brighton, Sussex, ENG c.1898) married three weeks after WWI was over. They lived here and operated 524 Michigan (226 Dallas) as a rooming house. A painter by trade, Frederick served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during WWI.
1949-51: Edward Pickering, electrician with MacDonald’s Ltd, 712 Yates St, and his wife Mary A, a bookkeeper at Radio Appliance Co, 783 Fort St. The BC governement then bought the house.
1953-54: BC Government Civil Defence Lecture Room.
Owners: 2014-16: The five houses still remaining on what is now called Capital Park, a major part of the block south of the Legislative Building, were sold by the provincial government to Jawl Precinct Lands Corp & South Block (Concert) Ltd for redevelopment. They moved the houses off the property, the three on Superior to 580, 584 and 588 Michigan St, and the two on Michigan to Dallas Rd. The Dallas Rd houses were then resold to developers, to be rehabilitated as single family dwellings.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Two: James Bay
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