Home > Walking Tours (Begin the Tour)
Overview of the Tour:
This walking tour highlights remarkable heritage homes and sites of historic interest in Fernwood. The route is circular and can be walked in an hour at a leisurely pace, with suggestions (in italics) for side-trips to nearby heritage locations. The tour is in two parts, allowing for a shorter excursion by completing only one of the parts. The route uses some footpaths and requires minor adjustments for travel by automobile. Dates of construction of houses (in brackets) are generally approximate as buildings often evolved over several years.
To Start:
From downtown Victoria follow the route of the old streetcar line up Caledonia Avenue, past Cook Street, to Chambers Street. Turn left on Chambers and then immediately right on Gladstone Avenue. Vehicles may be parked in the Victoria High School lots to the right. Walk through the courtyard adjacent the Belfry Theatre towards Fernwood Road to begin the tour.
Part One: Fernwood
1. Fernwood Village:
(Fernwood at Gladstone) The meeting place of the Spring Ridge and Fernwood neighbourhoods, and terminus of the former street-car line from James Bay, this corner has been the village centre since the building of Emmanuel Baptist Church (chapel 1887) and Thomas Hooper-designed sanctuary (1892), now housing the Belfry Theatre. For many years this village served the surrounding neighbourhood with a bank, market, bakery, pharmacy and other shops. Heritage buildings at this intersection include the former Rennie & Taylor Bakery (1905) at 1284-94 Gladstone, a painted sign still visible on the brick; and 1301 Gladstone, the Parfitt Building (1910). The five English Parfitt Brothers were respected building con-tractors who lived in the neighbourhood and built many fine residential, commercial and institutional buildings in Victoria including the Armoury and Christ Church Cathedral. The Fernwood Community Assn. building at 1923 Fernwood was originally the home of Fred Parfitt. The later storefront for decades housed the Fernwood Pharmacy, as tiles in the entrance indicate. Behind these buildings was the Parfitt construction yard. A brick factory at Fernwood & Vining supplied materials for several notable brick homes on this tour.
2. Turn right on Fernwood Road:
At Vining is an unusual Art-Deco Mission-style apartment block on the site of the original brick-yard. On the right is Victoria High School, 1260 Grant Street (1912-14), built on the site of gravel pits and designed by architect C. Elwood Watkins, an associate of Thomas Hooper. At Grant is 1809, T.B. Pearson's House (1888). At the the corner of Balmoral, 1702, dry-goods merchant E.E. Wescott's house (1903-6), illustrated on the cover, is an outstanding residence, possibly designed by Thomas Hooper, combining Edwardian symmetry and Queen Anne flare to take full advantage of the corner location. The house features a central tower linking identical gables, a wrap-around verandah, and elaborate stained glass and roof details. The neighbouring 1706, was built at the same time, but is far less elaborate. Many large heritage homes are located on the southern end of Fernwood as far as Yates Street, a worth-while side trip. Also on Yates at Camosun is the 1892 Firehall, now the Boys & Girls Club, and across Yates, the site of the wooden Colonial School (1853), marked "A" on map.Walking further to Fort Street and down to Cook Street leads to a concentration of heritage buildings, including 1156 Fort, "Wentworth Villa" (1862), one of the oldest standing houses in Victoria and one of the city's few houses in Gothic Revival style.
3.Turn left up Balmoral Avenue to Stanley Avenue:
On the corner, 1702, originally the home of salesman George Hull (1904), features a Palladian window, interesting shinglework, unusual squares above windows and Gothic quatrefoils. Other homes of note on this block include 1711, 1715, 1719, 1726 (1906).
4. Turn right on Grant Street:
On Stanley at Grant there was originally a small lake, known as Harris Pond, also an early water source for Victoria. Heritage homes on this block include 1421, Aaron Parfitt's house (1912); 1425 & 1429 (1914 & 1911), homes in the popular Arts & Crafts style; 1433 (1908); 1438, marine engineer J.A. Heritage's residence (1901); and some earlier houses including 1448, the Hodson Roper house (1898), in an eclectic Italianate style; and 1460, the Goodson House (early 1890's). Arriving at Belmont Av. a side-trip up nearby Begbie Street leads to the site of "Fernwood Manor" (1860-1969), "B" on map, now occupied by a large apartment block of the same name, at 1573-75 Begbie. Descending Begbie, 1458 is another impressive Queen Anne-style home, designed and lived in by architect A.C. Ewart (1892), now painted its original colours.
5.Turn left on Belmont
6.Turn left on Vining to Stanley
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Researched and written
by Carol A. Sokoloff
© FCA September, 1996.