ARCHITECTURE:
Craigmont is an asymmetrical, front-gabled Chalet-style Arts & Crafts house with wide, bracketed eaves. There is a flat-roofed dormer on the right and gabled and flat-roofed dormers on the left. The front façade has a a wide balcony with sawn balusters featuring hearts between low, square panelled posts. Below is an entry porch with recessed door and sidelights. The porch has shallow arches between shingled, tapered piers. On the upper floor is a bank of multi-paned leaded lights, on the lower are multi-paned leaded lights and multi-paned-over-one windows. The cladding is cedar shingle, with stone foundation. There are four brick chimneys.
The interior of the home also demonstrates the talents that new associate C.C. Fox brought to Maclure’s practice. Fox was trained in the office of C.F.A. Voysey, one of Britain’s foremost Arts & Crafts architects. Maclure used a cross-axial main floor design to provide Craigmont with expansive principal rooms that share a central hall, to maximize the views and light throughout the house. The Voysey element of the heart motif is continued on the staircase railings and the dining room sideboard hardware. However the refinement of the woodwork, the expert use of local woods, and the meticulous attention to design detailing, such as the built-in furniture and fireplace mantles, was Maclure’s signature.* Poised on the steep slope, Craigmont takes in views over Oak Bay and San Juan Islands.
*Maclure research by Jim Wolf
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1905-11: Harold “Harry” Alexander Munn (b. PEI 1860-1939) married widow Kate Stafford Morrow (née Williams, b. Victoria 1868-1952) here in 1897. In 1886 he was a sub editor at the Colonist and in 1887 editor at The Times. He was in real estate with Cochrane & Mann retiring from this business in 1924. He served on Victoria City Council 1891-1894 and again in 1907.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1911-35: Sarah Susette Finlayson (b. Victoria 1860-1935) was the daughter of HBC Factor and early Victoria mayor Roderick Finlayson and Sarah Work. Sarah Finlayson purchased it in 1911 and commissioned from Maclure a substantial one-storey rear addition. The same exterior elements were utilized to create a seamless addition that provided a spacious main floor terrace. The addition included more servant quarters and workrooms so that the home functioned well for its society families.* She never married and devoted most of her life to charitable activities.
1940-88: James Islay Mutter (b. Island of Islay, SCT 1874-1950) married Jane “Jean” Moffat (née Van Norman, b. Bobcaygeon, ON 1892-1982) in Duncan, BC in 1914. His family emigrated from Germany to Scotland and operated Bowmore Distillery from 1837-90. They came to BC in 1891 and settled in the Duncan area. A financial agent, he was a North Cowichan alderman 1908-10 and Reeve in 1914-16 and 1918-19. The Mutters moved here in 1929 and from 1925-45 James was proprietor of Port Renfrew Hotel and Store (destroyed by fire 2003). Daughter Jean “Isabella” (b. Duncan 1920-1988) married Maurice Palmer here in 1943 (b. Regina, SK 1915-2001); he was mgr of Les Palmer tailors. They moved in with her parents at this time but later divorced. Isabella remarried in 1951 to James Harry Beatty (b. Frankford, ON 1890-1966), who came here in 1913 and was owner of Sprott-Shaw Business School for 51 years until retiring in 1963. During WWI and WWII, the school trained radio operators for the RCN and Merchant Navy. It fared well through the Depression by offering business and commercial training. James was an MLA for Victoria 1928-33. He was president of Victoria Chamber of Commerce and an active member of Rotary. Isabella lived here until her death.