A historic house in the Rockland neighbourhood that was once home to the coal-mining Dunsmuirs and to Victoria politician Sam Bawlf will be demolished.
Victoria councillors, who in September put a 60-day protection order on the house at 1525 Shasta Pl., holding off its demolition to allow time to discuss options for preservation, have decided to allow that order to expire.
“We have seen co-operation between the owner of the property and our heritage planner and the Hallmark Society in order to document [the house’s history] so I think this has been looked at thoroughly and should be taken off the protection order,” Coun. Margaret Lucas said.
Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe agreed. “It would be great to keep all buildings that we either deemed heritage or when the current architecture or design complement the community,” she said. But the Hallmark Heritage Society, which advocates for preservation of historic buildings, has written a letter saying while it doesn’t support demolition, it won’t try to block it.
But Coun. Ben Isitt did not support demolition. “I guess I have trouble understanding why someone would purchase heritage-registered property if they don’t wish to own and operate that property,” Isitt said.
“There’s something like 14,000 ground-oriented single family residential lots in the city, so there are options if people wish to build and own and live in new dwellings.”
The home, fashioned out of a former carriage house, is listed on the city’s register of heritage properties, but that does not provide formal protection or restrict what an owner can do to the property.
Owners Matt and Wendy MacNeil plan to the deconstruct the house in order to build a new house and a garden suite but are planning to integrate elements of it in their new home.
The Hallmark Heritage Society board wrote to council saying that “although the existing building has a very interesting story the board will not contest the pending demolition.”
Instead, the Hallmark Society has volunteered to undertake a photographic survey of the building’s exterior and interesting interior elements to add to its demolished-building database.
“I wish to reiterate that we do not condone the demolition of historic buildings. But when demolition is inevitable, we strongly urge proper documentation of what was there so as to preserve for future generations as much information as possible about the structure,” Ken Johnson, Hallmark president, wrote in a letter to council.
But the Rockland Neighbourhood Association said “proper documentation” is not good enough. Neighbourhood association president Janet Simpson wrote that if the neighbourhood is to be “deprived of one of its heritage-registered treasures,” it is unreasonable for the owner to expect support for any variances for the new house or a rezoning for the garden suite.
According to the Victoria Heritage Foundation, the house dates to 1904 and was built as a carriage house and stables. It is the last remaining structure on The Leasowes, built by the Todd family and considered one of Victoria’s greatest estates.
The estate was sold in 1911 to James Dunsmuir, who renamed it Westover. The carriage house and stables were remodelled and housed a chauffeur, and later a gardener and his wife.
The Dunsmuirs gave the remodelled stables to a former nanny as a gift in 1938. The main house and most of the land passed to the city in 1941 for unpaid taxes.
— With a file from Carla Wilson
