ARCHITECTURE:
This 2½-storey house combines Prairie School and Tudor Revival Arts & Crafts styles. It is asymmetrical and has a wide, bellcast hipped roof, wide eaves and a front-facing shed-roofed dormer with a balcony. There are extensions on the main floor on the right and left sides of the house. On the front façade, below the dormer, is an offset, wide front porch with tapered square posts supporting a balcony above. The balusters of the dormer and balcony are square; the porch has shingled posts and balustrades. The upper floor is stuccoed and half-timbered, and is separated from the shingled lower floor by a high corbelled belt course. The horizontal emphasis of the wide eaves is enhanced by the different surface treatments, and attests to Samuel Maclure’s admiration of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1905-31: Dr. Francis Henry Stirling (b. Le Havre, France 1870-1931) married Marion Louisa “May” (née Johnston, b. Kent, ENG 1872-1931) in London, ENG in 1898; she was his second wife. He was born in Le Havre whilst his mother was en route to Scotland to escape the Franco-Prussian War. His first wife Jessie Amelia Smith who he married in Nanaimo, BC in 1891 died in 1892 while giving birth to their daughter Jessie Dorothea (b. Nanaimo 1892-1989). He and May came here in 1905, and the Colonist noted “he studied medicine in Edinburgh and Vienna [where he trained as an oculist] for the last three years and now intends making his home here.” An accomplished amateur golfer, he won several provincial championships. He was a member of the Union Club.
Tenants: 1921: Arthur Charlton and Vina Burdick (1595 Rockland Av).
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1932-35: Strathcona Hotel manager Manuel “Albert” Wylde (b. New Westminster 1867-1956) and Alice Ellen (née Mesher, b. Farnham, ENG, 1869-1859), with daughter Alice “Victoria” May Wylde (b. Victoria 1897-1992), a government steno. Alice was the sister of architect/contractor George C. Mesher (1004 Terrace Av).
1936-44: Major William Henry Langley, Barrister (b. Victoria 1868-1951), son of Alfred and Mary Langley. [Alfred established a wholesale drug business in San Francisco in the early 1850s, then in Victoria in 1858. Langley St is named for him.] Educated at Trinity College School, Port Hope, ON, he worked in the law offices of Drake, Jackson & Helmcken. Completing his legal education in London, he was called to the BC bar in 1890. He worked with Archer Martin (1022-24 McGregor Av), then Alexis Martin (1598 Rockland Av) until 1906, then established his own practice. In 1906 he married Gladys Annie Mona (née Baiss, b. San Antonio, TX, USA 1881-1978), who came here in 1888. He enlisted in the CEF in 1915 and went overseas with 62nd Btn Canadian Infantry. He was a solicitor for the Justice Department in Ottawa for nine years before returning here where he was president of Island Amusement Co, and a director of Colonist Printing & Publishing Co. He retired in 1947 and died when an E&N passenger train hit him at Johnson St. Bridge where he had wandered away from his nursing home.
1945-46: Contractor Sidney Coxworth (b. Markham, ON 1865-1951) and Harriet Edith Burton (née Evans, b. ENG 1880-1959) divided the house into apartments. Sid retired in 1928 from farming, then managed a series of apartments.
1947-50: It was the 10-suite Terrace Court Apts, owned by Russell and Miriam McTavish.