ARCHITECTURE:
This late British Arts & Crafts-style, multi-gabled house has one very long side-facing gable. To the right of the front porch is a double-gabled, Tudor extension. The gables are jettied and corbelled, with a main floor angled bay below the right gable. Beyond the gables is a small through-the-cornice wall dormer. The two-storey, gabled entrance projects beyond the gables and has a recessed porch below a bank of four diamond-paned leaded lights. A small, gabled, one-storey conservatory on the left end has an attached octagonal bay. Medieval touches include the hand-adzed finishing of major timber elements, a stone hood over the doorway, parged and brick Tudor chimneys on the ridge of the main roof, and trowelled stucco cladding. The roof has been redone in metal. The house, converted to 10 suites in 1950, has a large verandah and many windows on the rear façade. It cost $40,000 and was built to replace Robleda A three-car garage built for $3,500 had chauffeur’s living quarters above.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1928-34: The house was built for Edward Foster Pooley (b. New Albany, IN, USA 1858-1950) and Grace Randolph (née Higbee, b. Carrington, KY, USA 1866-1937). He worked with his brother in their furniture business, Pooley Bros. Furniture; they were cabinetmakers. Grace, a world traveller, lived in Philadelphia before coming here in 1927. She was living at 855 Pemberton Rd when she died. He died in Hood River, OR, USA
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1935-50: Widow Sarah Helena Frick Benning (née Rose, b. Allegheny, PA, USA 1893-1987). Her first husband Lt. William Ward Frick (b. Trenton, NJ, USA 1891-1918), US Army, died of pneumonia in France and is buried in American Cemetery Souilly Mause [his father established William Ward Frick Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering at Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA in his honour]. In 1928 she married James William Benning, Jr (b. USA 1898-1931), president of Benning Investment Co of Montréal. They moved to BC in 1924, and operated a fruit ranch at Penticton. They came here in 1928 where he died of pneumonia.
1951-c.60: Miss Mary Elizabeth “May” Cherry (see 1195 Fort St) managed the 10-suite Robleda Apts. In 1953 she married John Fraser Cantillon in Richland, WA, USA and he moved into the house.