Ogden Pt - Inner Harbour Heritage Tour
Explore some of the historic places in James Bay between the Ogden Pt cruise ship terminal and Victoria's Inner Harbour.
The fertile flat peninsula across the harbour from Fort Victoria is the neighbourhood we now know as James Bay. When the Europeans arrived, seasonal camps belonging to the ancestors of the Songhees First Nation dotted the cliffs, and a burial ground dominated Laurel Point. Sir James Douglas had established the Fort in 1843, and he set aside much of the peninsula for Beckley Farm, to supply Hudson’s Bay Company personnel. (The home farm stood near the intersection of Menzies & Simcoe.) Douglas built himself a fine home in 1852 on the north shore, facing the fort (now site of the Royal BC Museum). Later, Queen Victoria appointed Douglas as Governor of Vancouver Island, then of British Columbia. Douglas Street and the original James Bay were named for him. His son-in-law, Dr. J.S. Helmcken, the colony’s first doctor, built next door the same year, and his home, Arbutus Lodge, survives on its original site, beside the museum, the oldest surviving building in the city. After construction of the first legislative buildings for the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1858-60, and the first James Bay Bridge in 1859 (now the Causeway), the surrounding area became desirable residential property for Victoria’s social and political elite, who built substantial homes nearby. Woodlands, built in 1861, (140 Government) is the oldest surviving residence still in use in James Bay, but many other villas have succumbed to development. Several of the Carr family homes have survived. During the 1880s and ’90s, James Bay’s west end became an important industrial area, with a flour mill, grain elevator, shipyard, furniture factory, biscuit factory, woollen mill and fish-processing plant. This prompted further modest residential construction. The increased population led to building the substantial South Park School in 1894 and the Beacon Hill School (now residences) in 1914. The popularity of the area was cemented by the opening of the vast new Legislature in 1898 and the reclamation of the original James Bay for the Empress Hotel in 1901. The “Outer Wharves” at the tip of the peninsula (now cruise-ship docks) and completion of the huge Ogden Point Breakwater (1917), to encourage shipping, also spurred home-building. Grand homes continued to be built until the First World War. Whole streets of modest workers’ cottages were also added during World War II, to accommodate busy shipyards. Redevelopment and modernization in the 1950s-70s destroyed many historic structures. Community activism in the 1970s persuaded municipal government to restrict the tide of highrises and to preserve some of James Bay’s heritage buildings. Unfortunately the current building boom is once again taking its toll on James Bay’s beautiful old homes and streetscapes.
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Ogden Pt Breakwater
Completed in 1917, the 2,500 ft. breakwater consists of over 10,000 granite blocks stacked in a pyramid of 9 layers. Built to take advantage of the anticipated increase in marine traffic from the opening of the Panama Canal. The lighthouse at the end is a popular walking destination. The railings were added in 2013.
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Ogden Pt Wharves
The Ogden Pt. Wharves were formed from dredged material. The shipping boom resulted in the construction of grain elevators, cold storage plants for fish processing and warehouses for lumber exports. A rail spur serviced the wharves. By the 1970s these resource activities had declined. The docks now accommodate cruise ships.
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Lekwungen Grave Markers
Look for three grave markers (in grass beside west sidewalk directly across from 152 Dallas) where Lekwungen remains were discovered during road con-struction. Victoria is located on the historic lands of the Lekwungen (Songhees & Esquimalt) people.
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152 Dallas Rd
This 1879 house was a small workers' cottage before it was extended in 1989 when the Scottish (5-sided) dormer and verandah were added. Originally closer to the shoreline, before it was filled in to construct the Ogden Pt. Wharves.
Heritage Covenant properties are protected by legal agreement. Houses are eligible for Victoria Heritage Foundation funding.
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138 Dallas Rd
Newcombe House was designed in 1907 by architect William Ridgway-Wilson for Dr. Charles Newcombe. This eclectic brick house features a double loggia, Classical columns, bracketed eaves and three levels of balustrade. Charles Newcombe's many interests included anthropology and natural history. His photographs of coastal aboriginal culture remain an important component of the the Royal BC Museum. Son William lived in the house until his death in 1959. He was friends with artist Emily Carr and helped promote her work.
Heritage Designated properties are protected by municipal bylaw. Exterior cannot be altered or building demolished without City approval. Designated houses are eligible for rehabilitation grants from the Victoria Heritage Foundation.
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120 & 124 St. Lawrence St
1892 & 1894 workers' cottages with hipped roofs and angled bay window. Both have been altered.
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142 St. Lawrence St
1909 Colonial Bungalow by designer/builder James Fairall. Hipped bellcast roof and dormer, angled front and side bays and inset porch. Raised and converted to four units in 1992.
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147 St. Lawrence St
Handsome 1908 Edwardian front-gabled cottage with finial, cutaway bay and inset front porch.
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101 Simcoe St
1891 shop with corner entrance, residential above. Attributed to architect C.J. Soule and built by George Mesher. For many years it was home to the Ogden Pt. Market.
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202-04 & 210-12 St. Lawrence St
Pair of mirror image duplexes built 1943 by Wartime Housing Ltd. From 1941-47, Wartime Housing Ltd (later CMHC) built and managed over 30,000 houses in Canada to provide affordable rental housing for returning veterans and their families.
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215-225 St. Lawrence St
Built 1911 as four identical 1½-storey rental cottages for druggist Thomas Shotbolt. All have front box bays and inset corner porches - now closed in. Most have been altered, but retain their original charm.
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Fisherman's Wharf Park
Major Bay offered protected anchorage and was home to shipyards and a houseboat colony. A streetcar connected the wharf with downtown as early as 1890. The bay was filled during the 1960s to create Fisherman's Park. The park was improved in 2012 to include a raingarden that helps manage storm water.
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Fisherman's Wharf
Fisherman's Wharf provides moorage for working fish boats, float homes, food kiosks and a harbour ferry stop. It provides a pleasant stop for lunch or to take in the harbour activities.
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330 St. Lawrence St
1969 Mid-Century Modern design by Victoria architect Alan Hodgson. Victoria's youngest heritage house. Built as a studio for artist/sculptor Elza Mayhew. Two of Mayhew's sculptures are displayed in the Native Plant Garden outside the Royal BC Museum. Although the house was designed to maximize views, it is now largely obscured by vegetation.
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426 St. Lawrence St
Hollybank, built 1889 for Thomas & Sarah Milligan. Italianate style with twin chimneys, eaves brackets and a widow's walk is hidden behind vegetation. This is one of the last remaining early houses on the harbour waterfront. One-storey on the street side, it is 2-storeys with verandahs on the harbour side.
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106 Superior St
1914 brick Connaught Seaman's Institute by architect J.C.M. Keith features a double-arched entrance with sandstone window headers and sills. Built to provide safe overnight accommodation in an Anglican environment for seafarers. Later penthouse addition.
Heritage Designated commercial, industrial, institutional and apartment buildings are eligible for rehabilitation incentives from the Victoria Civic Heritage Trust
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119 Superior St
1911 2½-storey British Arts & Crafts. Hip-roofed porch with paired chamfered columns shelters an angled bay. Stucco and half-timbering in gable topped by finial.
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148 Superior St
1913 brick commercial building originally designed with two storefront entries. Businesses have included a cabinetmaker, candy company, fish & chips shop and several grocery stores. One grocer was known to take orders from fishermen and deliver to their boats at Fisherman's Wharf. Pathway connects to Kingston St.
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224 Kingston St
Circa 1887 for Dominico Morello, fruiterer. Italianate with hipped roof, original windows, angled bays and bracketed eaves. 1960s alterations include front porch and composite siding. It has great potential to be restored but is currently proposed for redevelopment that does not include retention.
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243 Kingston St
Haterleigh. 1900 American Arts & Crafts/Edwardian style. Architect Thomas Hooper's own home. Decorative elements include wrap-around porch, small balconies, stained glass, brackets and other fine millwork. Roofline altered in 1949 with rear gable and large shed dormer on left side. House moved here in 1911 from corner of Belleville & Menzies.
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301 Kingston St
Spring Cottage designed in 1891 by architect John Teague for Capt. Charles & Agnes Spring. Elaborate Queen Anne style with a complex hipped roof, several dormers, double entry doors, stained glass and impressive chimneys.
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225 Quebec St
1891 by architect John Teague for the Borthwicks. Ornate house with Queen Anne and Italianate elements. 2-storey angled, tapered bays on front and side facades, small multi-paned oriel window in upper gable.
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254 Belleville St
1912 brick industrial Stores building built by John Raymond, used by Canadian Pacific Steamship Service to store linens and goods to supply its nearby ships.
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309 Belleville St
1895 Queen Anne with an octagonal tower and wrap-around porch. Built for the Pendrays who operated the White Swan soap factory and then British America Paint Co. (BAPCO) factory at nearby Laurel Pt. The property was once well-known for its topiary garden.
Heritage Covenant . Heritage covenant properties are protected by legal agreement. Houses are eligible for Victoria Heritage Foundation funding.
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321 Belleville St
1877 Italianate has undergone several additions but still retains its angled bay with paired arched windows above, wide drop siding and split stack brick chimney. Owner/builder James Clark.
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327 Belleville St
1877 by architect James Symes for the Grays. Two-storey cubical Italianate with hipped roof, gabled shallow square bays, wide siding, paired one-over-one windows with horns and bracketed hoods and a corbelled chimney.
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470 Belleville St
CPR Steamship Terminal, 1924 by architects Francis Rattenbury & P.L. James is a Neoclassical Revival stone and concrete. The temple-like building with its 23 Ionic columns was Victoria's earliest large-scale use of precast concrete. Note intricate carvings, including Poseidon, god of the sea, created by George Gibson.
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Inner Harbour Causeway
Constructed in 1903, the causeway's granite retaining wall allowed for the development of the James Bay mud flats and the subsequent construction of the Empress Hotel by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which established Victoria as a primary tourist destination on the west coast of Canada. It replaced three earlier bridges across James Bay. Lower causeway was completed in 1977.
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Confederation Garden Plaza
Provincially-owned plaza includes a water feature flanked by Canada's provincial coats of arms. Glacial striations in the rocks near Menzies St. are geological evidence of the last ice age. This corner was the original location of house now at 243 Kingston. Weeping sequoia on Quebec St. was moved here from a demolished house on Superior St.
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501 Belleville St
BC Legislative Buildings. Architect Francis Rattenbury was 25 years old when his Romanesque Revival style design was selected. He later also designed the Empress Hotel. Built with mostly local materials and workers. Completed 1898 with subsequent 1911 east and west wings and 1916 additions. Illuminated with lights at night since the Queen's Jubilee in 1897.
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421-31 Menzies St
1893 Drill Hall & Ordinance Stores by architect Henry James for Federal Dept. of Militia & Defence. Brick Romanesque Revival style with arched entry and window bays, slate roof, stone foundation, window and entry trim. Replaced by the Bay St Armoury, the building was transferred to BC Government in 1921.
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401 Menzies St
In 1911 Rattenbury designed this 3-bay Tudor-style garage for the Legislative Assembly. Details include period colour scheme, slate roof with finials, copper downspout collectors and decorative door hinges.
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332 Menzies St
Edwardian with 2-storey gabled square bay on side. Built 1904 as a residence, converted to a grocery store in 1913. Now a restaurant, it served as a tea room from 1980s to 2018.
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328 Menzies St
Mirror image of 332 Menzies. Originally one of a row of four identical Edwardian houses built 1904.
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511 Michigan St
James Bay United Church by architect Thomas Hooper, 1892. Rare original wood-frame church. Front and side gables have large recessed arches with narrow, arched stained glass windows separated by reeded pilasters and rosettes above.
Heritage Designated commercial, industrial, institutional and apartment buildings are eligible for rehabilitation incentives from the Victoria Civic Heritage Trust
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Irving Park
Site of Capt. John Irving's 1884 ornate house that included stables and large garden. Giant sequoiadendrons, now among the tallest in Victoria, were planted by the Irvings. From 1917-19 the house served as a military hospital for returning veterans. It then stood empty until demolished in 1929. The City purchased property at a tax sale and created park.
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403 & 409 Simcoe St
1892 pair of hip-roofed workers' cottages built for the Rendalls. Typical of rental houses built throughout James Bay in the 1890s and early 1900s.
403 is Heritage Designated
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351 Simcoe St/160 Rendall St
Kildonan is a 1912 Arts & Crafts built for Margaret Stout. Two large angled bays, inset front porch, half-timbered gables with whalebone bargeboards and finials, original concrete garden wall.
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333, 329, 327 Simcoe St
A group of three 1911-12 Edwardian 2-storey houses by architect C. Elwood Watkins for contractor James Atkins.
333 Simcoe is Heritage Designated .
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309 Simcoe St
Hip-roofed Italianate decorated with angled bay, ornate front porch, eaves brackets and window casing mouldings. Built by carpenter Weert-Dirk Aden in 1892.
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151 Oswego St
1885 Italianate cottage built by carpenter/owner William Patton with lavish use of millwork and decorative trim. Large arched bargeboards capped by finials in the main gables are reflected in the wall dormer and flattened arches over the porch. Note fretwork and diamond shingles on two pent roofs and the unusual triangular bay. Lot was subdivided in 2014 and house was rehabilitated.
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119 Oswego St
One of a pair of simple Victorian workers' cottages built 1892 by carpenter George Maidment. Once common in James Bay, few workers' cottages still exist in original condition. Clad in drop siding with one-over-one double-hung windows.
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117 Oswego St
One of a pair of simple Victorian workers' cottages built 1892 by carpenter George Maidment. Once common in James Bay, few workers' cottages still exist in original condition. Clad in drop siding with one-over-one double-hung windows.
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300 Beckley Ave
Circa 1908 corner commercial building with adjoining residential has housed several business including grocers and a bakery with brick ovens at rear.
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101 Oswego St
1888 Queen Anne cottage built for the Dempsters has retained most of its original details including the whalebone bargeboards, drop finials, angled bay with mouldings, brackets and fish-scale shingles in the gable and front porch roof. Side windows have small hoods.
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65 Oswego St
Circa 1897 hip-roofed bungalow with later rear additions. Symmetrical front façade has small entry porch between two-over-two sash windows.
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36-88 Oswego St
Varied examples of 1942 Wartime Housing. All have been modified.
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59-61 Oswego St
Early 1905 duplex has a symmetrical façade with a central chimney on hipped roof. Cutaway porches at each end are decorated with spindled sunburst brackets on posts.
Heritage Registered . A heritage registered property is not formally protected. Its heritage values are recognized and it may warrant future preservation.
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55 Oswego St
Egremont Villa. One of a pair of originally identical Homestead style houses built 1892 by Peter Shandley. Gables with cornice returns and temple-style corner boards, Italianate full-width porch with chamfered supports and brackets.
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51 Oswego St
One of a pair of originally identical Homestead style houses built 1892 by Peter Shandley. Gables with cornice returns and temple-style corner boards. 51 Oswego has lost some of its details.
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41 Oswego St
1907 Edwardian with porches - one gabled; one hip-roofed either side of recessed entry. Details include finials and dentils. Original upper window replaced with hip-roofed extension below triangular attic window.
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37 Oswego St
1911 Edwardian shingled bungalow built by Dunford & Son. Gabled, cantilevered box bay, recessed hip-roofed corner entry porch supported by paired posts on tapered piers. Upper rear additions.
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21 & 27 Oswego St
Pair of 1940s bungalows clad in bottleglass stucco with hipped roofs, recessed entries and basement garages.
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290 Dallas Rd
Surf Motel is an iconic mid-century landmark designed by arch. Robert Sidall in the International Style. Built in 1960 for the Mangelsons, it remains in the same family and retains much of its retro atmosphere.
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242 Dallas Rd
1946 hip-roofed bungalow with horizontal stucco imitating wide lapped boards, tapered chimney between octagonal windows. Concrete garden wall with corner steps.
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226 Dallas Rd
1891 Italianate with gabled roof, bracketed porch and 2-storey angled bay. Moved from Superior St to Michigan St in 1910 by Charles Beaven and then again relocated by barge in 2016 and rehabilitated.
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222 Dallas Rd
Built by Charles Beaven in 1911. 2½-storey Homestead style house clad in double-bevelled siding. Full-width verandah shelters an angled bay and is supported by Tuscan columns. Its solid balustrade has a central panel of sawn balusters. Relocated by barge in 2016 from Michigan St and rehabilitated.