Former 2396 Forbes Street, Victoria, BC

So this cool house used to be located at 2396 Forbes.

This guy looks like he had no idea he was being forever memorialized on Google Maps...

These pics are from Google's June 2009 street view (I just discovered that you can see past street view images! Awesome, right? This explains how to do it). A much better photo, from January 2010, can be seen on Flickr here. And here it is in the '70s:

source

Sure, it was pretty rundown by 2009/10, but it's really interesting, right? Well, sadly, it was demolished sometime between 2010 and 2012, because now there's a new house there.

June 2012 street view

Which is, incidentally, currently for sale as a foreclosure property [edit: no longer for sale; link now dead]. According to that site it was built in 2012.

I can't find anything online about the old one--its construction, inhabitants, or demolition--except the photos. And that's sad, because it was unique, and definitely looks older. It's a shame it wasn't saved and restored.

Rockland Manor, Victoria, BC

I recently discovered that Rockland Avenue is the street to bike down if you like beautiful historic mansions--it's even home to Government House, the official residence of BC's lieutenant governor (which has beautiful grounds that are open to the public). But at the west end of the street--number 1114 Rockland Ave, to be specific--there's this place.

note the creepy smiley faces in the top floor window

right side

handy parking lot next door to walk in and get the side view

Check out the Google street view if you're interested in the context; it's from April 2014, and the building looks basically the same as in my photos. But here are two screenshots for comparison:

those signs by the door are intriguing--too bad I can't zoom in close enough to see what they are

And a few closeups:

look, only one smiley face

the fire damage (see below) is more obvious in Google's pics

According to the Hallmark Society the building was constructed in 1910 and the original owner was Miss Constance MacNaughton-Jones. I've also managed to discover that it was originally Victoria Private Hospital. As reported in the 1911 census, 37-year-old Emma Benner worked as a nurse there. In August 1912, the Daily Colonist reported that "excitement was occasioned at that institution" when the wallpaper caught on fire due to the stovepipe hole having been papered over, instead of fitted with "a regular metal stopper"--"when a fire was started in the furnace, the heat sot the paper ablaze. The brigade was summoned but no damage was done."

In September 1912, an ad ran in the Daily Colonist asking "the gentleman who so kindly assisted the lady who fell from the street car on Yates St. Tuesday night" to "communicate" with a Mia Grimmer or Miss Trimmer (I'm guessing it was supposed to be Miss Grimmer? Text recognition software is nice but can only get you so far...) at the hospital. In 2013, a woman wrote that the building "deserved recognition as a heritage site", as in 1919 "it was a nursing home where babies were delivered, including me." The Daily Colonist announced the birth of a boy there in 1917, and it's given as the place of birth on the birth certificate of a woman who was born in 1920. In 1925 the hospital moved to Yates Street (and closed two years later). (That source is a Google Books preview, and unfortunately it doesn't include the preceding page, which looks to have a little more about the hospital's history.)

In 1934, the building was advertised in the Daily Colonist as "Victoria House": "Small apartment, kitchenette, hot and cold water: quiet, comfortable". And in 1940, it's given as someone's address in the Daily Colonist. From 1957 to 1958 it was the home of Jane Kate Crerar (known as Jean), a Canadian stenographer who ended up in Singapore during World War II. After evacuating to Australia and then living in Hong Kong, "In 1949 she inherited a sufficient amount of money and shares [...] to allow her to move back to British Columbia in comfort, in 1950". You can read her whole story (and those of many of her relatives), including quotes from her unfinished book, at the link.

The Hallmark Society site has two photos of the building in the '70s, still known as "Victoria House" (a name that, sadly, doesn't open up any further Google possibilities--can you get more generic?).

compare this to my photo above--it's almost exactly the same angle (source)

In this one there's a sign up advertising a 2-bedroom apartment for rent.

source

This undated photo is obviously later, with no name at all emblazoned on the building, the steps updated to their current state (which actually looks nicer), and the double doors on the garage/shed in the lower left converted to a single door and window. 

source

I haven't been able to find anything about its transition from Victoria House to Rockland Manor. In June 2013 a fire gutted the top floor, making the building uninhabitable (the main and second floors were also water damaged). At that time it had 20 units and 17 or 18 tenants, depending on which article you read. There was a shared bathroom on each floor, and the monthly rent for most of the suites was $550.

There are so many relevant articles that I'm going to assign them letters to make citation easier (also, most of them contain photos). Prior to the fire, according to long-term residents (article A), "the building had become rundown and [...] too many high-risk tenants with mental-health issues and addictions and in need of supervision were being allowed to rent." Apparently (B), "Mental health patients were taking their medication with alcohol and were regularly falling asleep or in a stupor while smoking cigarettes." The place was "a source of noise and disruption for some" in the neighborhood. 

"There was a lot of visible clutter and debris—to the point of hoarding—in some units," according to the fire inspector (C). The president of the company that owns it said that it "was a 'wet house' for people who drink, that the tenants were hard on the buildings and that renovations and repairs didn’t last long" (B). According to article A, "An inspection—one of many—was held after tenants complained in October 2012 about wires shorting out, rats, mice and bedbugs. The problem was so bad that at least one tenant camped in the backyard. [...] In December 2012, there were complaints about a fourth-floor window 'broken for about two months'. In January, a bylaw officer noted in an email: 'the property is in transition to becoming social housing.' "

The president of the company claimed that (D) "The ownership group is quite a compassionate group and supported this kind of building to continue." But things got so bad that eventually, "a complaint was made by a Vancouver Island Community Outreach Team police officer. An inspection by RESPOND—a multi-agency team including a bylaw officer, fire, building, plumbing and electrical inspectors, a VIHA [Vancouver Island Health Authority] environmental health officer and representatives from social services, housing and animal control—was requested. That inspection was scheduled the day of the fire" (A). The VIHA spokeswoman said of her agency's attitude prior to the fire, "While we were not pleased with the condition of the building, it did provide housing for a high-risk, very marginalized population who would likely be homeless or in shelters if it was not for the availability of Rockland Manor" (A).

The fire occurred at 1:50 a.m. on June 25th. It "originated at the end of a top-floor hallway between two units, where the fire escape is located" (C). The cause was likely discarded smoking material. The house had a manually-operated fire alarm, which was pulled, but because of the fire's location, residents had to climb out of windows to escape it. One man ended up hanging from the roof. According to Lt. Gord Taylor (E), "He was a little traumatized so we had to coax him and help him down." He was rescued with a ladder and hospitalized for smoke inhalation. (See article D for a more detailed account, including quotes from the man.)

"It took 20 firefighters and three fire trucks several hours to extinguish the fire" (source). The firefighters eventually went inside, where, according to Taylor, "The fire had burned railings and ceilings had fallen" (E). Retired firefighters reported that "there was a similar fire in the same location of the house in the 1980s" (C).

The displaced tenants were allowed to enter the building to collect their belongings two days later. The Salvation Army housed some of them, who were still there as of July 12th. There was some controversy surrounding their housing, which you can read about in several of the Times Colonist articles.

According to a blog someone made to try to do something about Victoria's derelict buildings (Rockland Manor was the only place ever posted about, though), there was another fire on June 29, 2014, almost exactly a year after the first one: "I watched in horror as smoke wafted by my window early evening. When I went out onto my balcony, I saw the Victoria FD already there with axes and fire hoses quelling the fire." The author also notes that area residents have called the police multiple times about the building, due to other fire scares and people trespassing.

The only other stuff I've got on the place is a few random mentions:

• In a VICOT (Victoria Integrated Community Outreach Team) powerpoint from 2010 or 2011, listed as "market rent" housing
• In city council minutes from April 2010, stating that a member moved "to secure the rooming house units at 1114 Rockland Avenue [...] as rental in perpetuity" (I don't know what that means, though...).
• On CBC's website--a radio story about the fire that unfortunately won't play for me; I'm assuming the audio is just gone at this point, but I'm including the link just in case the issue is on my end.

Nothing anywhere about what's going to happen to it--i.e., when it's going to be demolished. Doesn't look bad on the outside, but the inside sounds pretty unsalvageable.

1176 Yates Street, Victoria, BC

I found out about this one when I was first looking into 2321 Cook Street, since they are/were owned by the same person (Robin Kimpton), but didn't make it there until yesterday. It's been sitting here derelict for over 10 years.

Apparently it was once called Danescourt and had 17 light housekeeping suites (not entirely sure what a "light housekeeping suite" is--an apartment without much of a kitchen?).

right side

left side

left side from the back

back

I like it when there are apartment complexes next door to these things because then you can wander into their parking lots to get a view of the back

Another part of the left side. Almost looks like a normal house.

This is another one with a definite history. Going chronologically:

• 1904: Constructed by Robert Dunsmuir as a residence for nursing staff, according to one person on a message board. Can't find any other sources to corroborate that, though, except one tweet.
• Advertised in The Daily Colonist in 1912 and 1913.
• People lived there! A bookkeeper in 1909, the next of kin of two different soldiers who enlisted in 1915, the parents of a solider who died in 1916, someone random who "found this place and lured Dana to move in" in 1979 (he has a whole list of his past residences and little notes about each), and accused legislature bomb plotter John Nuttall (he and his partner are apparently on trial right now). In this transcription of the 1901 Victoria census, it's also mentioned (as 1176 Yates and Danes Court Apartments) in the "Remarks" section (which contains additional information, not from the census, on each person) as the residence of a mother and her daughter when they both died--the mother in 1931, the daughter in 1963. Interestingly, the daughter married a man with the last name Danes, and the mother's maiden name was Prudhomme.
• In June 1939 the Daily Colonist reported that a fire was called in there, but it was a false alarm (search "Danes Court" on that page to find it--it's just a very brief note).
• In September 1939 the Daily Colonist included an ad from someone who lived there looking to get their stolen fishing tackle back (again, search "Danes Court").
• At one point a tenant was shot and killed outside. An "ongoing dispute [between two tenants] was ignored by the building’s manager until one night when both tenants went over the edge – the police were called, only to arrive the moment that bullets began to fly."
• May 2000: Firefighters and paramedics showed up at the building to save a former major league pitcher, Frank Williams, who collapsed from a drug overdose while there visiting his brother. In Frank's words: "I got in the wrong crowd of people, partying, staying out all night, doing something stupid. It was me being a stupid drunk at 3 o’clock in the morning saying, 'I want some coke,' and they give me down. With alcohol mixed with it, boom, it just knocked me to the ground. They were supposed to give me coke and they gave me heroin." The article calls the place a flophouse (writing this post is making me feel really ignorant--I don't think I've heard that term before, but apparently it refers to a cheap rooming house; Wikipedia has more details) and describes it unflatteringly: "The brown hallway carpet was ratty and stained, the air stank of old cooking and stale urine." It also notes that rent was $425 per month. Frank's brother, Francis, who lived there, had a spinal column injury in 1995 that left him "with limited control of his limbs." The article tells the whole story of him and Frank and one of the firefighters who helped save Frank, who was also a baseball player.
• November 2003: The building's 15 tenants were kicked out. "Inspectors found weight-bearing beams in the basement had been cut and weight-bearing posts had been undermined. Upstairs, one weight-bearing wall had been removed entirely. [...] there were open pipes in the house and sewer gas seeping into the building. Inspectors also found electrical work that had been done without permit and renovations in the attic where there is no fire escape." A former tenant complained of "ongoing construction late at night, a leaky gas stove, the lack of a smoke detector, mice, and debris falling from the ceiling." Kimpton sent a letter to the building inspector calling the closure of the building "drastic".
• February 2004: At a "Committee of the Whole" meeting (I don't know what that is...), "L. Ferguson, a former tenant [...], outlined the problems she faced with alterations made by her former landlord including lost rent and additional moving costs" (page 9).
• June 2004: The city issued a demolition permit for the building (can't find any other mention of this, though). Its possible heritage value was discussed at another Committee of the Whole meeting. "Staff indicated that property owner’s consent is required for heritage designation, and was directed by the Committee to contact the property owner to discuss the possibility of including the building in the City’s Heritage Registry" (page 4). Apparently nothing ever came of that.
• An article in the Fernwood Community Association's spring 2006 newsletter includes a pre-boarded-windows photo (page 3).
• Kimpton defended himself in a message board post about his run for city council in November 2011 (here's an article about his run). "Over the years, I have dealt with the hard to house or difficult tenants, often not by choice but unfortunately due to the nature of what Victoria has to offer. The Yates and Cook properties were prime examples. Unfortunately, I had a manager prior to 2001 who did not care. I came to Victoria in 2001 to try and attack the mess. I lived in a sleeping bag in the basement of Yates and Cook and tried to stem the tide of drug dealings and drug use. [...] I spent some $250,000 on the two buildings between 2001 and 2003 when the buildings were shut by the City." He says he's tried to talk to the city about developing the properties in order to provide more low-cost housing, but was always ignored. He also wrote, "With respect to Yates Street from information provided by the City, if Yates Street were torn down a duplex could be built there. In my opinion, this is not a reasonable option for a building in this location with a 30 unit property and a 45 unit property on either side. Given the angst and animosity which seems to exist in the City [...] I will not go forward with this property where I have to ask the City for any sort of variance."
• October 2012/March 2013: Kimpton tried to sell the property (along with 2321 Cook) as "Potentially an 8 to 12 unit strata type development."
• Apparently it was also for sale in January 2014, but I can't find any other mentions of that or any info on what the result was.
• March 2015: A small exterior fire damaged only the front door frame (the fire department is, luckily, right down the street). Arson is suspected (a can of camping fuel was apparently used to start it). According to the fire inspector, "There had been squatters there in the past and signs of activity," but no one was in the building at the time of the fire. See a photo here (you can't really see anything, though).

Google's street view photos are from April 2014, before the upper windows were boarded up.

As for its current state, a message board poster says, "The roof became compromised several years ago and the rain water pours in through all the levels rotting floor by floor. Take a hazmat suit and a properly fitted respirator if you ever tour this building." So it'll probably share a fate with 2321 Cook eventually.

1115-1117 Caledonia Avenue, Victoria, BC

Biked by these two last week and was intrigued, so I did some Googling (and returned today to take pics). I can't find out when or why they were abandoned, but I did uncover the plans for the future of the site. The houses are to be demolished and a "7-bed revenue 4-plex" is going to be built in their place. A drawing of the proposed building and more details on it can be viewed as a pdf, or on DFH Real Estate's website. It's noted that there are "two small homes of little value currently on the property".

This pdf (which consists of multiple documents regarding the proposed rezoning of the property to allow the construction of the new building) contains more information on the houses themselves. "Older single-family dwellings" (page 4), they are "the only two dilapidated houses on the block" (10) and "considered to be unsalvageable" (26). More specifically, they are "in very poor condition, they have no concrete foundations, they are sinking, there is substantial rot, and rodents as well as insects have become a problem" (10).

The owner apparently lives in Ontario (or at least did back when the rezoning was first being discussed), and according to a letter from the Fernwood Community Association (dated February 2013), "Neighbours of the property [have] expressed concerns about the owner's poor standards of maintenance and the undesirable tenants that have sometimes occupied these homes over the years" (26).

I was excited to discover this photo from the '70s here

There's also a little more on the proposed building--it's to be "character-style" and "have the look of a single-family dwelling" (10). This is probably because the Fernwood Neighbourhood Plan of 1994 encourages development "which maintains the integrity, look and character of the single family and duplex housing stock" (6). (And now that I think about it there really aren't any obvious apartment buildings in Fernwood, except the ones that have to be just because they're so huge).

The earliest document in this pdf is a letter dated January 2013 (page 10), and most of the others are from August of the same year, so obviously there's been some sort of hold-up (unless these things always take this long?). A custom zone was required for the four-plex to be built there, so maybe that's part of the reason. But, according to DFH Real Estate (on the page linked above), the property (or the development rights, maybe? not really sure how this stuff works) was sold in March 2015 (for $448,500) and now "All that is required is to obtain the building permit."

This site notes the rezoning issue coming up at Victoria City Council meetings in March and May 2014. The Google street view photos of the existing houses are from May 2014, pre-fence and graffiti.

the sign says "Land Use Application"

courtesy of Google

and Google again

Weird as it may be, I don't think removing these houses will necessarily help "beautify the neighbourhood" (as the letter on page 10 of the rezoning documents pdf says). I like the porch roof detailing on the one on the left, and the peeling shutter paint and the colors (graffiti and all) on the right one.

Plus they're interesting, and must have at least a little bit of a story. Even though apparently they're in pretty bad shape, they don't look it from the outside (at least I didn't see any evidence of them sinking into the ground or being overrun by bugs). Replacing them with a "character-style" (which I guess is nice, but it seems so fake) apartment building, even if it would be good for the economy and provide needed rental units (page 10 again) just seems sad.