ARCHITECTURE:
This two-storey, bellcast-hip-roofed, Tudor Revival house has many of the same Rattenbury traits as 534 St. Charles St. The main façade has a gabled, half-timbered projection with a tall, slender finial and ten multi-light leaded windows. It sits on a bracketed belt course above a curve-arched porch which leads to the front door. To the right on the second floor is a wide balcony over an open porch with large square posts, pilaster and solid balustrade. To the left on the main floor is a hip-roofed angled bay. Above the bay, a wide dormer addition adds a ½ storey to the house. On the right side is a small dormer above a one-storey box bay; both are hip-roofed. On the left side is flat roofed extension with a deck above. On the rear is a full-height angled bay under the roofline. The front steps, flared balustrades and round posts are all of stone. There is a matching garage beyond the main house. Both are stuccoed with half-timbered upper levels. The Victoria Daily Colonist listed the house as costing $6,000.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1904-28: Elizabeth “Lizzie” Georgina (1873-1928) and George Allan Kirk (b. Dover, ENG 1870-1928) married in 1903. Lizzie was the daughter of James and Agnes Harvey; Agnes was the daughter of Robert and Joan Dunsmuir (1050 Joan Cr, Rockland). Agnes died in 1889 in Nanaimo and James six months later. Joan, recently widowed, had just moved into the huge new Craigdarroch Castle, and she took Lizzie and her brother Robert to live with her. It is believed that Joan Dunsmuir commissioned Rattenbury to design this house for her granddaughter. The wedding reception was at Craigdarroch, and the couple honeymooned around the world. They returned about a year later and took up residence in their new home.
George was the son of Emily and Col. James Buchanan Kirk, commander of the 91st Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. George was in the Royal Navy, then came to Victoria in 1890. He and his brother Lawrence became partners in the wholesale dry goods business, Turner, Beeton Co, and by 1902 George was managing director. George joined the 8th Fusiliers and eventually became a major. In 1914, he was thrown from his horse while with his regiment at the Willows training ground, and eventually lost his leg. He died suddenly in London, England, of heart failure. Elizabeth died in Victoria several months later of “cerebral apoplexy” (stroke).
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
This house was vacant for several years.
1932-63: Raymond Francis “Frank” Castle (1898-1949) married Katherine Elma “Kitty” (née Fraser, b. Victoria 1894-1963) at her parents’ house (800 St Charles St) in 1922. Frank was born in Rockwood, MB, which in 1919 became Teulon, MB, founded as a settlement for immigrant farmers and named after his mother Cara Maria Teulon by his father Charles Caesar Castle, a director of the railway which ran from Winnipeg to Teulon. Frank came to Victoria in 1910, then served as a Lt. with 77th Depot Battery CFA during WWI. A stockbroker and financier, his business “Castle Building” was on Fort St. He ran Native Sons Mines and was later proprietor of Oak Bay Theatre.