ARCHITECTURE:
The Laurels is a large 2½-storey Victorian Queen Anne house with Classical Revival details. It has two pedimented gabled box bays above two hip-roofed angled bays on the Rockland façade and an entrance between the two bays. The front façade, on Langham Court, has two full-height, pedimented, gabled box bays. The gabled tower between the bays has a pedimented, round-arched window on the second floor with the flat-roofed entrance porch below. The left bay has a Palladian window with Ionic capitals on the main floor, the right bay has large sleeping porches with angled bays on each floor. The entire house is now stuccoed and has lost most of its detailing, although it retains its modillions under gable eaves. The foundation is fieldstone.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1889-1902: Robert Ward (b. Winton, Hants, ENG c.1849-1928) married Mary Pauline King (b. London, ENG c.1856-1934) here in 1876. [His brother, Bank of BC manager William Curtis Ward, lived at Highwood (1021 Gillespie Pl.] They lived in a cottage on the property for 14 years. In 1889 they had it moved down the hill where it still stands at 1261-1263 Richardson St, and had this mansion built. Robert, a commission agent, came here from ENG in 1871 and joined Welch, Rithet & Co, then Stahlschmidt & Co, importers and exporters. He bought the business and ran it as Robert Ward & Co. His success allowed him to branch out into other areas such as insurance. In 1893 he built the Temple Building at 519-525 Fort St (Downtown) designed by Samuel Maclure. He was an active member of BC Board of Trade and president 1887-91. He was a provincial magistrate, a pilotage commissioner, and managing director of BC Corporation. He retired in 1893 and returned to England with Mary in 1901.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1903-12: Collegiate School for Boys, established by Bishop Hills in 1861, moved several times before coming to this location; it was moved finally to 1157 Rockland Av in 1912. The first boys’ school in BC, it closed its doors in 1929. Children of prominent families such as Helmcken, Tolmie and Robson attended the school. John William
Laing (b. Glasgow, SCT 1846-1909), headmaster from 1893-1909, attained his MA from Oxford University and was a Fellow of Royal Geographical Society of London. In 1896 he led an exploration into Vancouver Island interior, correcting maps of lakes, rivers and other landmarks. In 1897 he married Ethel May (née Read, b. Toronto 1866-1948), who came here in 1896. Ethel, then a widow, married Col. Charles Corbishley Bennett, CA (b. Toronto 1860-1944) in 1911. He served in South African War and WWI, retiring in 1934 after serving nearly 50 years in militia and permanent force. They owned and managed the Langham Court rooms (see 1930-31) in 1932-34.
1913-28: St. George’s School for Girls. Mrs. Hannah Wilhelmina Suttie (b. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, ENG 1874-1953) founded the school in 1907 with five students in a small house at 951 Johnson St. There were up to 135 students when located here. The school had a reputation for unusually high standards and was favoured by many prominent families. It closed because Hannah, wheelchair-bound due to rheumatism, could not manage all the tasks involved with a residential school, particularly one in a large old house which required extensive maintenance. She then joined the City’s teaching staff, and taught in a ground level classroom that was especially made for her. By 1939 she was back in England as headmistress of a boarding school in Launceston, Corn.
1930-31: Langham Court rooms, Mrs. M.K. Johnson, proprietor; she left to manage Windsor Hotel (901-905 Government St, Downtown). (see 1932-34 above)
1935-47: For the next 20 years this was Rockland Lodge rooms, later Apartments. Capt William Schade (b. Burlington, ON 1877-1946), tugboat captain, and Lucy Irene (née Matthews, b. Burgeo, NL 1880-1947) owned and managed the apartments until their deaths. It remains apartments.