The sound of lumber cracking and hitting the ground filled an upscale Oak Bay neighbourhood on Thursday as a historic house once owned by members of the Ross family of Butchart Gardens was being demolished.
Heavy equipment chewed into the waterfront home at 1069 Beach Dr., with its immediate neighbour at 1101 Beach Dr. next on the demolition list — the end of an era for two stately homes on what was once known as Bankers’ Row across the road from the Victoria Golf Club.
It’s unclear what the new owner — who bought both properties for a total of $20 million in the last year— plans to do with the two sites, totalling 5.174 acres.
No development application has been submitted to the municipality of Oak Bay, Mayor Kevin Murdoch said Thursday, although demolition permits have been issued for both sites.
Neither property was heritage-designated or on the community heritage register, a municipal official said.
Under current zoning, four residential units could be built on each site, said Murdoch, who called the rock walls that run next to the buildings on Beach Drive iconic, adding to the best of his knowledge, the walls are remaining.
Murdoch said he loves older buildings, since they help keep the story of the community alive, but he also recognizes that communities change.
A numbered company paid cash for the properties, with 1069 Beach Dr. going for $11 million in March and 1101 Beach Dr. selling for $9 million in December 2023, according to B.C. Assessment records.
Hans Broere, president of A.C. Dandy Electrical Products Ltd. of Alberta, is listed as a director of the numbered company in B.C. Registry records. He could not be reached Thursday.
The stone house at 1069 Beach Dr. was built in 1912 for David M. Rogers, president of The Uplands Ltd. development company and head of the Rogers and Co. real estate firm. The architect was Jas Finmore.
The house, with almost 280 feet of waterfront, has changed hands a number of times. At one point, Jennie, the daughter of Jenny and Robert Butchart — who later became Princess Chikhmatoff when she married Andre Chirinsky-Chikhmatoff — lived there.
The princess’s only child, Ian Ross, inherited Butchart Gardens, followed by his daughter Robin-Lee Clarke, who currently manages the internationally known attraction. The Ross family owned 1069 Beach Dr. for many years, maintaining its manicured gardens.
The two-storey house had five bedrooms and four bathrooms and measured 10,845 square feet, including the basement, on 2.9 acres, according to B.C. Assessment.
Completed in 1914, the house at 1101 Beach Dr. has seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms and is 10,063 square feet on 2.24 acres.
Passersby stopped to watch the demolition on Thursday, with some remarking on the waterfront view that has opened up. Nearby resident Jasso Harnett said while it’s too bad the house is being demolished, the owner might add more housing to the area.
Stuart Stark, a retired heritage consultant who wrote a book about Oak Bay’s heritage buildings, said that in the 1980s, his company was hired by the municipality to do an inventory of heritage buildings, and both 1069 and 1101 Beach Dr. were flagged.
He was shocked to learn that both houses, each with stone garages, are being demolished.
Stark said the whole section of Beach Drive from the Oak Bay Beach Hotel to the golf course was known as Bankers’ Row, calling it a “row of very posh houses” that were “integral as a group in architectural history” of the area.
The 1101 Beach Dr. house, called Anketell Lodge, was designed and built as a retirement home by William Wallace Blair, an architect originally from Winnipeg.
The demolition of such properties represents a loss of community heritage, Stark said.
Both homes were architecturally and historically significant, well-built and worth preserving in their settings, he said.
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