ARCHITECTURE:
This large, cross-gabled, two-storey Craftsman house has stucco and half-timbering in the gables, the rest of the house is shingled. There are first-floor, shed-roofed, cantilevered bays on three sides. A sleeping porch, now enclosed, on the upper right front, sits over the inset entry porch with its shingled corner post. The shingles are flared over the denticulated belt course which separates the upper and main floors. Casement windows are in banks of three or four or paired. The house has a fieldstone foundation. On the basement left front is an interior garage, one of the earliest in Victoria. The house was converted to suites in 1942.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1910-28: Albert Edward “Bert” Todd (1878-1928) was born in Victoria but completed his education in Toronto. On his return to Victoria Bert joined his elder half-brother, Charles Fox Todd (1041 St. Charles St) and nephew, William Todd (944 St. Charles St) in the family business, J.H. Todd & Son, Wholesale Groceries, Provisions and Salmon Canners, 72 Wharf St. Bert built two houses for his widowed mother, Rosanna Todd, 1525 Shasta Pl, Rockland and 1972 Fairfield Rd, now 423 Chadwick Pl. During his career he served as an alderman, police commissioner, and mayor in 1917-18. In 1903 Bert became Victoria’s second automobile owner when he paid $1800 for a White Steamer to Victoria’s first car dealer, and his future father-in-law, Bagster Roads Seabrook, manager of Albion Iron Works, 2101-2111 Government St.
In 1910 Bert married Ada Beatrice Elvira Seabrook in Los Angeles, CA. Bert’s wedding gift to Ada, to give her an independent income, was the October Mansion apartments at 1030 Cook St. Their unique honeymoon consisted of a road trip along the California coast to Mexico, and then north to Vancouver on primarily unknown and untravelled pathways, setting the way for the Pacific Highway. Bert’s passion for roads – he was known as “Good Roads Todd” – led to involvement in various related organizations, and he was associated with the construction of the Snoqualmie Highway in 1914. After WWI, some of the planning for the Peace Arch marking the Canadian / US border on the Pacific highway was done in the den of this house by Bert and his good friend Sam Hill, of “What in the Sam Hill?!” fame. Bert and Ada’s sons Joe and Dick made the first public donations by children to the project.
Bert’s health declined in his late 40s, and he died in Seattle, WA. In 1929 Ada married Frank McGee Fretwell, but he died eight years later. She married once more to Guy Tilton, and died in Seattle, WA, in 1968 at 77.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1930-33: Retired barrister Roderick Ross Sutherland (b. Winnipeg, MB 1862-1945) married Martha Anna (née Richardson, b. ON 1867-1933) in Toronto in 1890 and came here in 1911. He was VP of Trust Co of Victoria and later Belmont Trust. 1935-37: Stuart Alexander Henderson (b. Aberdeen, SCT, 1863-1945) married as his second wife, Mary Jane (née Lusk, b. Aylmer, QC 1881-1974), writer and poet, in Victoria in 1904. He was educated at University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. He was an Alderman in Ottawa in 1893. In 1897 he came to BC, and practised law in Ashcroft for 13 years. He was MLA, representing Ashcroft from 1903-1909, then practised law in Victoria until his death.
1939-40: Edith Sophia Foot (née Hornibrooke, b. Toronto, ON 1866-1947) married Capt. Hamilton Foot, Master Mariner (b.Dublin, IRL 1858-1901) in Toronto in 1885. They came to BC in 1890. Capt. Foot, master of the SS Islander, drowned when the ship sank in Lynn Canal, S of Juneau, AK, USA, 1 August 1901. He left four offspring. Edith, a member of BC Federation of Music Teachers taught piano for many years. 1940: Olivia Alexandrina Homer (née Wilson b. Walkerton, ON 1869-1961) married Benjamin “Ben” Homer (b. Staffs, ENG 1875-1955) in Portage la Prairie, MB in 1911. She lived here while he lived in Metchosin, where he had operated the stage line from Colwood to Albert Head from 1915-28. Known for his rich baritone voice, he gave many local concerts. Ben’s properties were developed in the 1960s and Benhomer Dr is named for him.
1941: John Thomas Iverson (b. Dover, ENG 1882-1971) and Olive Elizabeth (née Ferguson, b. Bracebridge, ON 1889-1949), and son Robert. John and Robert were sign writers for Bayliss Sign Co, and Olive ran a rooming house at 1018 Quadra St.
1943-44: Oliver Russell Booth (b. Arvonia, KS, USA 1873-1950) and Orpha May (née Ferree, b. Milroy, IN, USA 1876-1972) were proprietors of the six-suite apartment.
Owners: 1945-51: Capt. Alfred Lambly Brick (b. Inverness, QC 1873-1952) married Sarah Brock (née Lendrum, b. ON 1877-1947) in Edmonton in 1896, and applied for a homestead grant in 1912. A member of the 19th Alberta Dragoons, he joined 202nd Btn CEF as Acting Capt. in 1916, his occupation given as contractor. In 1921 he was a Soldiers’ Settlement Board inspector. They came here after retirement in 1945.
Tenants: 1943-55: Public stenographer Jessie Meharey (b. Russell, ON 1882-1957) joined family living in Esquimalt in 1913.
1944-53: Hobbs Glass bookkeeper Agnes Bacon Mayfield (b. Co Durham, ENG 1883-1971) married widowerFrederick William Mayfield (b. Newark, Notts, ENG 1874-1942), a steamship engineer in Saanich in 1937.
1938-51: Widow Janet Sanderson, a dressmaker at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
1953: Glendower Apts caretaker John Henry Warriner (b. Leeds, ENG 1875-1964) lived in the basement suite.