ARCHITECTURE:
By comparing the c.1905 and present day photos, it is evident that this 1½-storey Shingle-style / Arts & Crafts house has undergone a major transformation. The original façade has been altered by removing the tower on the left front corner. The hipped roof has been extended and altered to a front jerkin-headed gable. There are now main floor, shed-roofed extensions on both sides, a long shed-roofed dormer on the right, a hip-roofed dormer on the left, and a large two-storey addition on the rear. The inset entry porch on the right front corner now has a square arch, a square shingled post and two small square pilasters replacing a rounded arch and smaller chamfered posts. To the left is a shallow box bay under the roofline. It has a brick foundation.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1900-17: Sewell Prescott Moody Jr (b. BC 1874-1949) married Matilda Susanne Gooch (1878-1952) of Port Discovery, WA, USA in 1898. They lived briefly at 915 St Charles St, Observatory Villa, before moving to this house. [His aunt Elizabeth Bowron lived at 1418 Fernwood Rd.] He was the son of timber baron Sewell Prescott Moody Sr. [b. Hartland, ME, USA, 1834, came to BC in 1862 and logged in New Westminster. In 1865 he bought a Burrard Inlet sawmill on N shore and established Moodyville, renamed North Vancouver in 1891. He drowned in 1875 when SS Pacific sank off Cape Flattery on its way to San Francisco. Sr’s brother was Thomas Gage Moody]
In the early 1900s Sewell Jr worked for Simon Leiser (1005 St. Charles St). By 1917 he had moved into insurance, until his retirement in 1947. Matilda was an active member of IODE and Red Cross, opening their later home in Brentwood Bay to Red Cross in WWI and during WWII was a Red Cross convener. From 1929-31 they lived at 1030 Terrace Av.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1918-20: BCER tram conductor Herbert and Pauline Middleton had lived at 740 Mary St, in 1903- 08.
1923-54: George Herbert Dawson, CE (b. Québec City 1866-1940) trained at McGill and came to BC in 1890. His Vancouver firm, Dawson & Elliot, was responsible for laying out the townsite of North Vancouver, formerly Moodyville. He came to Victoria in 1909 when he was appointed BC’s Surveyor-General. He lived at 1162 Fort St in 1909-16, then 1737 Rockland Av in 1917-18. He retired in 1917 and lived at this house until his death. His sister Mary Fry Dawson (b. QC 1864-1954) came to Victoria in 1911 to live with him. An honorary life member of VON, she died in this house aged 90.
1955-68: Howard and Grace Hummel moved into the house a year before it was duplexed (1956) at a cost of $2000. Architect John A. Di Castri was commissioned for the design by BC Govt chartered accountant Harold Victor Hummel (b. Leeds, ENG 1891-1963) and Helen “Imogen” (née Warren, b. Toronto 1897-1984) who married in Shanghai, China in 1924. Harold retired in 1957 and lived in 1020 until his death. Son David Michael Warren Hummel (b. Kimberley, BC 1931-2004) of Hummel & Warren, Barristers & Solicitors, lived in 1020 in 1958. Imogen married widower & lawyer Brig. Francis/Frank Wilson “Huff” Houghton-Beckford, British Army RA (b. ENG 1907-1981) and they lived in the house until 1968.
1020-1022 and 1006 St Charles are now part of a seniors’ care home, all addressed 1006 St Charles St.