ARCHITECTURE:
Derreen, built for $8,000, is a very early example in Victoria of a British Arts & Crafts house. Its complex massing, various roof shapes, tall chimneys, cladding, and nooks and crannies inside, all give the house the impression of having been built over a long period of time, a typical British A&C concept. This is a side-gabled structure with gabled extensions of varying heights on the sides and rear, and a monumental hip-roofed, two-storey, semi-octagonal bay on the front [resembling the huge three-storey bay on the contemporary Point Comfort Hotel]. The house has small and large dormers on front and rear, with Classical curving roofline and side brackets on the unusual front dormer. The ridgecaps originally had upward-curving ends at the peaks of the gables. The original drop siding and shingles were covered by stucco at least since the early 1930s; the stucco and half-timbering remains.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1892-1920: Robert Scott Day* (b. Cork, IRL 1858-1920), architect and civil engineer, designed Derreen for his family when they arrived in Victoria. He trained in Ireland, articled in Dublin and London, then practised in the diamond-fields in South Africa for five years. After arriving in Victoria in 1891, he partnered with architect Cornelius John Soule until early 1894. As Soule & Day, their work included the 1892-93 design for Point Comfort Hotel on Mayne Island; they won the 1893-94 competition for North Ward School (2617 Douglas St).
* research Ron Soule, in Don Luxton “Building the West” 2003.
Robert married Patience “Lilla” Swanton (b. IRL 1863-1934) in 1888 in SA. She was involved with an organization that helped indigenous women in the diamond-fields. They came to Victoria in 1891, lived on Dallas Rd and purchased this Rockland property from Tom Gore for $3,150. The many “scrub” oaks on the property inspired them to name their house Derreen, Irish for “a grove of little oaks.” [The street name is misspelled.]
In her diary**, Lilla described the then Belcher Av as “only a rough track with a two plank sidewalk leading to the only house on it, that of Maj. James Peters’ (now Col.) afterwards bought by Mr. C.A. Holland.” 1892: “Came into our home at Derreen (October 1). It was in a very unfurnished state but we thought it best to move in before the winter. This turned out to be an unfortunate move for on December 21 a ‘cold snap’ started, one of the worst I have ever experienced, when with a large fire in my bedroom all night, the thermometer only registered 36 degrees (F).” From 1893: “It was a very uncomfortable winter. We had no furnace and on January 27, another cold snap started, which on January 31, culminated in the lowest temperature ever known in Victoria…even 6 degrees (F) below zero with heavy snow. That night our baby Olive was providentially saved from freezing to death when Rose (the governess) awakened with the cold herself and went to look at her and found her blue, and unconscious in her cot. She took her to her bed, rubbed her, and kept her close in her arms all night.” April 1899: “Went out to stay at Cadboro Bay while Derreen was being finished inside – plastered, etc.”
**Excerpts: Patience Day’s diary, coll Elizabeth (Day) Gibson
Robert and Lilla were noted participants in civic and philanthropic activities. By 1896 Robert was in the land, mining and insurance business. He was later partners with Beaumont Boggs (1008 Carberry Gdns, 1140 Arthur Currie Ln,). Robert attended the first BC Hospital Assoc meetings in 1918-19, and was a long-term director then chairman on Royal Jubilee Hospital (RJH) Board. In 1917 he was appointed Police Commissioner, and was elected after legislation changes allowed election of police commissioners. He was a long-term president of Van Is Underwriters’ Assoc, which became BC Fire Underwriters’ Assoc. The Days lived here until his death in 1920. Lilla was active in Local Council of Women, King’s Daughters, and was a founding member of IODE. She was also a strong supporter of RJH, serving on the Women’s Auxiliary. In 1923 she presented the first of what, after her death, became Robert S. and Patience Day Memorial Scholarship to RJH “graduate nurse obtaining highest degree of general proficiency in theoretical and practical work and who also possesses those qualities of mind and spirit which find expression in consecrated service.” They were presented for 60 years.
Son Richard Welsted Day (b. Victoria 1896-d.1972 Hollywood, CA) became a Hollywood art director, winning seven Oscars for films such as How Green Was My Valley, A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. He was nominated for 13 other Oscars, including Exodus. Another son William Swanton Day (1893-1967) married Eva Agnes Munsie.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1921-24: Daughter Aline Dorothy Wynne Day (b. Kimberley, SA c.1889-1938) married Lestock Wilson Swinton Cockburn (b. Dawlish, Devon, ENG 1885-1934) here in 1911. Lestock was dist mgr, Investors Syndicate. He came to Canada in 1894, studied at Royal Military Coll, Kingston, ON, then served 17 years with RCArtillery in Halifax, Quebec, Kingston and Victoria. During WWI, he was stationed at Work Point Garrison, then with Canadian CEF in Russia. He returned here in 1919 as commander of 5th Heavy Battery, RCA, until retiring as Lieutenant-Colonel in 1923. The Cockburns lived here until the mid-1920s; they divorced in 1928. Lestock moved to the Cowichan district. Aline died in England, but was buried with family at Royal Oak Cemetery in Saanich.
1929-35: vacant.
1935-38: Builder Duncan Rudolph Alcorn (b. Waterville, NB 1871-1946) (1618 Rockland Av, TOH3) married Addie Lelia (née Olmstead, b. Scotchtown, NB 1876-1956) in 1905 and came to BC. They later lived in 804 Derreen Pl.
1941: Ernest Edward Henderson (b. Truro, NS 1880-1949) and Elizabeth (née Pace, b. Winnipeg, MB b. 1882-1966). Ernest retired in 1939 as Supt, Canadian Bank of Commerce at Winnipeg.
1942-1960s: Dr. Stuart Guthrie “Barney” Kenning (b. Rossland, BC 1899-1975) married Muriel Marguerite (née Pitts, b. Donald, BC 1898-1976) in Windermere, BC in 1929. Dr. Kenning studied medicine at McGill, then practised here 55 years. In 1930-31 Lt. Kenning, 13th Field Ambulance, CAMC, passed military training and qualified “Proficiency in Riding” at Work Point Barracks, Esquimalt. During WWII Lt. Col. Kenning was a member of the District Medical Officers Staff and in 1942 organized staff for No.16 Base Hospital, RCAMC. He was Chief of Staff at St. Joseph’s and Royal Jubilee Hospital (RJH), then Chief of Medicine at Veterans Hospital from 1948 until its closure in 1971. It became the Memorial Pavilion in 1974, named “Kenning Wing” in his honour. Muriel was a graduate of St. Joseph’s School of Nursing.