ARCHITECTURE:
Oakley is a two-storey, cross-gabled Queen Anne house with a gable-on-hip roof behind a front-facing pedimented gable. There is a gabled two-storey square bay on the left side, and a gabled two-storey angled bay on the right. All three main gables are pedimented and bracketed, and have decorative bargeboards. A wide box bay on the left front is separated from the verandah beneath by a wide belt course which continues around the house. The wrap-around verandah is shallower on the right because of the large angled bay, and has an unusual rounded and cantilevered roof. The verandah has chamfered posts on stone piers with stone balustrades on the entry steps. The house is clad in drop siding, the gables and belt course in fishscale shingles. The foundation is granite. The house was converted to a duplex in 1972 by G. Raps. The upper-storey box bay attached awkwardly on the left front is a later addition with Arts & Crafts windows.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1892-95: Alfred Bodley (b. Mount Forest, ON 1870-1946) designed and owned this house and 1032 McGregor Av (Bodley info).
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1895-97: The Hon. Archer Evan Stringee “Archie” Martin (b. Hamilton, ON, 1865-1941) and Emily Mary (née Read, b. Toronto, ON 1863-1940) married in 1889. Archie was educated in Ontario and Belgium, and was called to the Manitoba bar in 1887 and the BC bar in 1894. He had an extensive law career, eventually becoming Chief Justice of BC in 1937. He retired in 1940. Archie was the brother of lawyer and judge Alexis Martin (1598 Rockland Av).
1898-1906: Retired dry goods merchant Percy Wollaston (b. Leeds, Yorks, ENG 1825-1909) in 1848 married Catherine (née Mossop, b. Broughton in Furness, Lancs, ENG c.1826-1901) in Oakley, Beds, ENG [thence the name of house]. They moved to Fairmont, MN, USA in 1871-72 and retired to Victoria c.1890. [Son Francis Henry (b. Westham, Lancs 1860-1910) married Alice Virginie (née Harrison, b. Victoria 1873-1944), sister of Edith Verrinder (1032 McGregor Av).]
1907-17: G.A. Slater (Toronto) Shoe Co commercial traveller and manager William McLean (b. Stormont, ON 1855-?) and Alice (née Edmonston, b. Hamilton, AUS 1871-1946).
1918-21: John Reginald Redpath (b. Montréal, PQ 1871-1951) married Florence Amelia (née Botterell, b Montréal 1872-1944) in Montréal in 1907. They retired here in 1917 after ranching in Pincher Creek, AB. He was a member of Redpath Sugar family [founded in Montréal in 1854].
1927: Instructor Commodore Basil Shakespear Hartley, RN (b. Doulting, Som, ENG 1866-1946) and Clarissa Phoebe (née Sutherland, b. Reigate, Sy, ENG 1870-1947). He was loaned to RCN in 1910 and in 1914 became director of studies at Royal Naval College of Canada. He came to Esquimalt when the College moved here, teaching until it closed in 1922. He also taught at Victoria College in Craigdarroch Castle (1050 Joan Cr).
1928: Agrologist James Travis (b. Gargunnock, SCT 1879-1968) immigrated in 1909 with Mary Adelaide (née Wood, b. ENG 1881-1960), homesteading in Alberta before coming to BC as manager of United Seed Growers of BC in Penticton. He was later a field crops manager for BC Dept of Agriculture.
1930-41: Plumber George Holt (b. London, ENG 1885-1960) and Ethel Irene (née Bird, b. MB 1891-1957) married in 1913 in a double ceremony with his sister Helen “Ruby” (b. Seattle 1891-1953) and Edwin Parsons (b. Saltspring Island, BC 1885-1981). Partner in plumbing firm Thacker & Holt, he came here in 1891. [His father, contractor and builder William Curryer Holt, constructed their first Victoria home, 408 Alpha Tc in Burnside, in 1892; from 1987-2013 it housed Vintage Woodworks. William volunteered in 1891-92 as construction manager on family’s church, Centennial Methodist Ch (612 David St).]
1942-47: Retired schoolteacher Ethel Alford (b. ON 1894-1947) taught at Calgary High Sch 26 years.
1948-50: John C. and Rebecca J. Stillman; he was prop of The Pines rooming house at 1246 Balmoral Rd.
1951-56: Sgt. Robert Thomas Mair, Victoria Police, (b. Victoria 1916-1964) and Phyllis Muriel (née Laycock, b. Virden, MB 1911-1979). Sgt. Mair was a Flight Officer, RCAF during WWII.
*From research by Jim Wolf