428 St. Charles Street (now 528)

Date: 1925 to 1936
Location: 428 St. Charles Street, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Surname/tag: English-1791

428 (now 528) ST. CHARLES STREET, VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

Laura Martin Fraser (née English), widow of Bank of Montreal manager James Sutherland Chisholm Fraser, lived with her three daughters, Lolly, Margie, and Fantan, at 428 St. Charles Street from the mid-1920s until 1936.

Soon after Lolly was married in Shanghai, China on June 5, 1936, Laura gave up the house in Victoria, stored the furniture, and with Fantan, joined her daughters in Shanghai, as Laura was especially interested in meeting her new son-in-law and to see her daughters again. Laura stayed for 18 months and was able to orchestrate Margie's wedding from Lolly & Cliff's home.

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Address: 528 St. Charles Street (ex-424, 428 St. Charles Street)
Name(s): Belvedere Cottage; Olinda
Built: 1901-03
Heritage-Designated including interiors: 2003
For: Arthur Holmes & Mildred Pigott

ARCHITECTURE: This two-storey, side-gabled Gambrel-roofed house, rare in Victoria, has an unusual front gambrel gable on its symmetrical façade. The front gable has a semicircular window above three six-light windows. There are two shingled, shed-roofed dormers with shingled balconies on either side of the front gable. Both balconies sit on the verandah roof. The roofline of the verandah continues around the sides as a belt course. The full-width verandah has six heavy Tuscan columns and an almost- Eastlake-style balustrade. There are stepped balustrades on either side of the wide front stairs which lead up to the Colonial Revival-style doorway with fanlight and sidelights. Two full-height brick chimneys are located on the left and right sides of the house. The house is clad in shingles. It was listed in the Daily Colonist in 1903 at $2,000.

In 1955 it changed from 428 to 528 St. Charles Street.

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS: 1901-11: Arthur Holmes Pigott (1868-1932) and his wife Mildred first paid taxes on the property in 1901, after immigrating from England. Arthur was secretary manager of Victoria & Vancouver Stevedoring Co, and president of Dunwell Mines, during that company’s development. After their divorce, Arthur remarried in Vancouver in 1920, to widow Winifred M. Howard (née Davis) Gibbon. Arthur retired in 1927 and died in Deep Cove.

OTHER OCCUPANTS: 1925-36: Laura Martin Fraser (née English), widow of Bank of Montreal manager James Sutherland Chisholm Fraser. The Frasers were married in New Westminster in 1903 and moved from Rossland to Victoria in 1912. When she died, Laura was living at Mount St. Mary Hospital, 999 Burdett Av, Fairfield: the wall is Heritage-Designated.

Source: 528 St. Charles Street from Victoria Heritage Foundation at www.victoriaheritagefoundation. ca

Sources

• 528 St. Charles Street from Victoria Heritage Foundation at www.victoriaheritagefoundation. ca