ARCHITECTURE:
This is a two-storey, shallow-hip-roofed house with wide eaves. It is almost Foursquare, but has a centrally-located, front facing box bay on the verandah roof. The left side has two box bays on the main floor under the overhanging hipped roof. The right side has a box bay and an angled bay, both on the main floor. The hip-roofed back porch is attached to an extension on the right rear. A deep, full-width, front verandah has grouped square posts and pilasters, and shallow arches supporting a wide hipped roof which wraps around to the left over the box bays. The posts sit on concrete-capped, random stone piers. the stairway has stepped stone balustrades. The upper floor is clad in smooth stucco and half-timbering, the main floor in roughcast stucco, and the high basement walls are random stone. The house has strong horizontal lines reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School style of the Midwest. The family converted it to a duplex in 1947.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
1912-53: Harry Exeter Beasley (b. Hamilton, ON 1862-1943) married Katherine Griffith (b. N WAL 1868-1953) in Donald, BC in 1891. He came out to Donald with the CPR and from 1886-1891was chief clerk to superintendent Pacific division and 1897-1900 superintendent Kootenay section, Nelson, BC. They spent a year in Montréal before returning to BC, moving to Victoria in 1909 when he was appointed superintendent then director of E&NR after CPR bought the railway from the Dunsmuirs. He was in charge of construction for track lengthening from Wellington to Cumberland. Katherine was very involved with IODE. Beasley was with CPR 45 years, retiring in 1928.
They had four offspring: Harry “Hal” Burkholder (b. Donald, BC 1892-1972); Percival “Percy” Exeter (b. Donald 1894-1976); Ellen (Helen) Beatrice (b. Donald1896-1912) was a St. Margaret’s School student wh en she died of rheumatic fever; and Arthur Griffith (b. Nelson, BC 1899-1977), champion local golfer, married Maud Edith Harriman Monteith (b. Victoria 1890-1983) in 1943.
OTHER OCCUPANTS:
1953-76: Capt. Percy Beasley, RAF, was educated here and St. Andrew’s College, Toronto. A member of 50th Gordon Highlanders, an outstanding athlete, member of YMCA and JBAA, he remained a bachelor and whenever in Victoria lived here. He and his friend Ken MacDonald, son of Hon. Chief Justice James A. MacDonald, from 933 St. Charles St (now 1501 Laurel Lane, photo p246), earned their pilot’s licenses at Wright Aviation School, Dayton, OH, USA among the first 400 pilots to train there. In 1915 they left for England to complete their training with the Royal Flying Corps at Chingford. Graduating with rank of Flight Sub-Lieut, he served two years in France before transferring to Marine Observers School of Bombing & Gunnery as CO. He was involved in a plane crash but was unhur He returned home in 1919 following his release from the forces and bought a sawmill in Shawnigan Lake. It was destroyed by fire; he then went into up-island mining for gold and other minerals. During WWII he served four years in the RCAF.
1976-2001: Harry “Hal” Beasley was an outstanding sprinter. Known as “Spider,” he was Dominion Track Champion in 1909 and in 1912, represented Canada at Olympic Games in Stockholm, SWE. A member of YMCA and James Bay Rugby Club, he captained many championship teams. He married Gertrude Keating (b. York, ON 1893-1963) in 1915 and they had one daughter, Gladwyn Helen (b. Victoria 1919-2014). In his 20s, he was Victoria mgr, Union Oil Co of CA. Gladwyn came to live with her grandparents in this house when her parents separated in the late 1920s. In 1943 she met Lieut. Jean Paul Robitaille, RCN, from Montréal [his family came from Normandy to Québec in 1670]. They married in 1944 and moved to Montréal. He dealt in surgical supplies and pharmaceuticals. She inherited the house when her Uncle Percy died and the Robitailles moved to Victoria. Jean Paul died in 1993. Gladwyn sold the house in 2001.