ARCHITECTURE:
William and Margaret Garnham built 601, 603 and 609 Toronto St (see 609 for Garnhams) in 1891-92 as revenue property. The first two are Queen Anne cottages, while 609 is in the French mansard style. 601 is a one-storey, cross-gabled Queen Anne cottage with a hipped roof on the rear behind the two side-gabled box bays. There are sandwich brackets in the eaves around the house, under the flat roof of the angled bay under the front gable, and in the frieze of the front porch. The porch has a flat-topped, hipped roof and two chamfered, bracketed square posts. The round-arched bargeboards in the gables, connected by gable posts with drop finials, have triangular appliqués with circular cutouts. The headers of the side windows have unusual hoods supported on sandwich brackets; the front door header is also decorated. Many of the original one-over-one sash windows have been replaced by fixed, double-glazed single panes. The porch roof and the three gables have fishscale shingles, the house is clad in drop siding, and the basement in vertical V-joint T&G. The house was raised after 1973, and the front stairs are front- and side-facing, with square balusters.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Tenants: 1893: William Hall (b. Cardiff, WAL c.1858-1941) and Kate Alameda (née Shields, b. Victoria c.1865-1950) married in 1888. William came here c.1881, married Mannie Elizabeth Allen in 1886, then divorced her. He was a saloonkeeper at the Senate, Manitoba Bar, and Garrick’s Head, and worked at the Savoy Theatre, Victoria Machinery Depot (VMD), and Oak Bay Beach Hotel, then as a warehouseman with BC Liquor Control Board. Kate moved in 1948 to her daughter’s in Santa Ana, CA.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1894-95: Saloonkeeper Albert Charles Flewin (b. Victoria 1864-1902) and Mary Augustine (née Barry, b. San Francisco c.1867-1928) married in Victoria in 1888. Albert’s parents Thomas Flewin (c.1833-1901) and Jane Theodosia (née Caselton, c.1833-1894) came from Kent, ENG, in 1852-53 on the Norman Morison. Thomas farmed, then was a gardener for Sir James Douglas. He became proprietor of the Capital Saloon and the Belmont Saloon. The family moved to South Turner St and founded Flewin Nurseries. Mary came here in the mid-1870s. She ran Flewin Nurseries until her death.
1898-1900: Teutonia Saloon proprietor Charles Lawson.
1902-04: Rudolph Schnoter (b. San Jose 1879-1950) and Katherine “Kate” (née Johns, b. Vancouver 1883-?) married in 1901. Rudolph came here in the 1880s with his parents Andrew and Emma Schnoter (116 South Turner St, James Bay). He worked in his father’s cigar manufacturing business.
1908-09: Frederick and Alice Garnham, and his parents William and Margaret. William died here in 1908; Fred, Alice and Margaret moved to 609 Toronto St.
1914-17: Elizabeth (née Hutchinson, b. Westmoreland, ENG c.1854-1932), widow of Christopher Nowell, was likely a widow before she came here in 1913. Her daughter May Elizabeth (b. Bradford, Yorks, ENG c.1884-1962) lived here while husband John Sugden (b. Barnoldswick, Yorks, ENG 1884-?), a sign writer, was on WWI active service.
1918-20: Sign writer John Thomas Iveson (b. Dover, ENG 1882-1971) and Olive Elizabeth (née Ferguson, b. Bracebridge, ON 1889-1949).
1923-28: Albert Edward Appleyard (b. ENG 1879-1960) and Florence May (née Hawkins, b. London, ENG 1888-1976) came here in 1920. Albert served with First London Fusillers during WWI. He was a janitor at Columbia Theatre, then night clerk at Churchill Hotel until retiring in 1957. He was a member of Britannia Branch, Canadian Legion.
1935-38: janitor Albert Christy (b. Birkenhead, Cheshire, ENG 1879-1959)and Emma Mary Jane (née Whatley, b. Havant, Hants, ENG 1874-1964).
1939-40: engineer Elmer Ferguson (b. Victoria, 1907-1968) and Phyllis (née Parkinson) later divorced. Elmer retired in 1966.
1941-51: Elsie Kate Waterman (née Knight, b. Leicester, ENG 1895-1969) settled in Canora, SK, for 14 years before coming to Victoria. She and husband Sidney Lancelot Waterman divorced.
1952-55+: Wilson Motors bodyman Cyril Iredale Hunt (b. Balcarres,
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Two: James Bay
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