234 Edward Street, Victoria, BC

I happened upon this one while biking in Vic West today. Ever since I started keeping an eye out for abandoned/boarded-up buildings, I've realized just how many there are around here (and probably every city), including some really interesting ones that aren't talked about online at all--like this one.

See older images below--two of these side windows were previously stuccoed over

There used to be a porch supporting the roof; see below

I could only find two references to it online. The first is this 2010 ad (found on page 4 here). The house looks pretty different, right?

Built in 1905; "offers a grand entry [and] gorgeous wood stair railing"; "needs work" but "what an exciting opportunity!"

Here it is in 2009 (thanks, Google!). This is the view from Edward Street; check out the Catherine Street view here.

See? Only one window on the side. Lovely stained glass on the bay window.

Ugh, stucco--but the new owners were taking the stucco off, restoring the house, in fact, according to the Victoria Heritage Foundation, which claims it "was rehabilitated in 2011-12". Here it is in August 2011, stucco mostly gone.

Here you can see that the new window was put in right where two old windows used to be

And June 2012, all stucco gone except the small patch that's still there today.

All windows free! Of both stucco and boards. Still loving the stained glass. Enjoy a close-up here.

Something's also going on with the porch there, and it was gone by September 2012.

In the next street view image, May 2014, it looks basically like it does now. So someone started fixing it up... and then stopped. Did they find something wrong with the house that made it not worth continuing? Was there a fire? Money issues? And will the work ever continue, or is the house (built in 1905, remember) now doomed to slowly rot away?

One more interesting thing to note is that e-valueBC, who assessed it in 2014, refers to it as a "non-manualized structure". Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that term is actually defined anywhere online. The "comments" section of the assessment page says "building unfinished". Thanks, e-valueBC. I just wish you could tell me why!