1152 & 1154 Johnson Street

I discovered these two today, soon to be torn down to make way for condos. They were built in 1902, so they're over a hundred years old, but now we're going to lose them to development.

1152, left side--check out the lovely art glass window

art glass close-up

1152, back

1154, front

back

1154, back

1154, side

There's not much of a story here--from Google maps, it looks like they were lived in until just recently. So they're not technically abandoned, just vacated and waiting for demolition.

Google street view May 2014, looking like actual homes

Google's image of the back, May 2014

I also found some photos taken in October 2014 by Lotus Johnson (reproduced here under a creative commons license).

source (Flickr)

source (Flickr)

Another house, 1406 Chambers Street, also built in 1902, was already torn down to make way for the new development. It used to be right behind these two. I never saw it in person, but here's a photo taken by Lotus Johnson, also in October 2014.

source (Flickr)

Here's Google's image from May 2014. I bet the garage was original.

Google's image of the back of 1406 Chambers/side of 1152 Johnson, May 2015

So, basically, we're losing a cluster of 1902 houses, leaving this one on Chambers (also 1902) surrounded by new buildings. I wonder how long it will last.

This article about the new development, published October 6, 2015, says that "Currently at the site crews are dismantling structures in preparation for construction." I'm glad I caught the two on Johnson before they're completely gone.

2955 Glasgow Street, Victoria, BC

I might be the only who finds this interesting, but yesterday I was walking along and happened to pass by this house.

Not actually abandoned, but in the process of being demolished is close enough

Conveniently, it backed onto a parking lot, so I was able to get that view as well.

Today I walked by again, and... gone. Just a pile of wood/rubble. What are the odds that I would happen to walk by for the first time on the day before it was demolished?

A Centre for Jewish Life and Learning will soon be taking its place. And as much as I hate old buildings being demolished, I can acknowledge and accept that not every building is special/worth saving. This one was built in 1949, so it wasn't even that old. Here it is in April 2014, courtesy of Google Maps.

Nothing wrong with it, but nothing that makes it stand out either. Still, it was somebody's home--multiple people's, I'm sure--and I feel like that's enough to make it worthy of commemoration. 

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.

2750 Gosworth Road, Victoria, BC

After coming across the link to the Google Maps street view of this house, I was curious about its current state, since the street view photo is from three years ago. So I biked by today, and instead of a house, there's just an empty lot. Since eventually Google will update their photos, I wanted to post some screenshots from the current street view so that there's still some record of the house out there. Couldn't find anything about it online, sadly, although I may have the wrong address since I'm just going by Google. 

ETA 5/30/15: So I just found out that Google keeps their old street view images available, and you see them easily--just click the little clock next to the date when you're in street view mode. Since I published this post they've updated the street view pics to May 2014 (when I first posted, the current ones were from September 2011), but you can go back and see both the 2011 images (found in this post) and ones from 2009--super fascinating to me, because the house was in way better shape then, so it's cool to see what it looked like before this. Anyway, I'll leave this post up, and might still do posts about lost buildings occasionally, even if Google does have its own record of them.

ETA 8/5/15: Finally got around to adding a screenshot from 2009's Google Maps to this post--see below! I also found out some actual information on the house. I had the address wrong originally (2759 instead of 2750), which probably didn't help.

Anyway, according to this Facebook discussion, what went wrong was that "The owner attempted to lift the house to put in a basement. Basically he and a bunch of helpers began to jack it higher windows began to blow out and the house became unsafe. Friends live next door and watched and listened as the house was twisted apart."

Other people (in that discussion and another) were saying what a nice old house it was: "The fireplace had two faces in the two main adjacent entertaining rooms and [was] covered in an awesome royal blue tile which looked original with intricate metal work. It had side pillars denoting the dining area from the front lounge. The stairwell was quite grand. Farmhouse kitchen. And a tree growing partially inside the bathroom from the neglect." Someone who lived there in the 80s said it wasn't in the best shape even then. 

Here's a photo from January 2008, with a little more info in the comments. All I have otherwise is that a Mrs. P McGill lived there in 1917--so obviously it was built before then.

Below, the rest of the 2011 screenshots from the original version of this post.

in context

left side

front again

right side

better view of the right side

back

2321 Cook Street, Victoria, BC

I noticed this place while driving by recently, and today I biked there to get a closer look and take a few photos.

Googling the address revealed that it had much more of a story than I expected. It was built in 1913 and used to be the Caldwell Apartments, where a murderer lived; he killed someone over a drug debt in 2005 and turned himself in a few days later, after police seized evidence against him in a raid on the house. Shortly after that the building's residents were ordered evicted, although it wasn't fenced or fully boarded up until 2013. This is the Google street view photo, which was taken in June 2012. 

Before that, and possibly after too, squatters lived there, although in June of this year there was a fire (photo at the link, and several more here) which left the building structurally unsound. Because of that, it's impossible for it to be inspected to determine the cause of the fire. Here's a photo I took of the right side, where the fire damage is more obvious.

And a photo from the Times Colonist:

source

It's a shame that it wasn't sold, fixed up, and put to use again before it was too late.
_____________________
Edit on December 9, 2014: Walked by today and the top back half is gone. According to this article it's finally being demolished, although they say demolition was scheduled to be completed by December 5th, which obviously hasn't happened. No one was working on it today at all, although the backhoe from the article's photograph was sitting in the driveway next door. Didn't get any pictures, but I'll have to go back and take a few before it's completely gone.
_____________________
Edit on May 16, 2015: Quite late, but I'm finally adding the photos of it half-torn down, which I took on December 12, 2014. 

this little boarded-up cabin in back is intriguing... not sure if it got torn down too or not

Next time I drove by it was completely gone. Today I found this photo from the 1970s (and was super excited), which would have been cool before but is even more meaningful now that the building no longer exists.

Found here.  You can see the little cabin in the background!

Also, a bunch more links which I apparently missed before:

• Most interestingly, photos of the inside taken by a Flickr user in April 2014 (there are a lot, but it's definitely worth looking through them all)
• More photos of the fire taken by the same person
• On page 3 of this pdf, a photo taken circa spring 2006.
• A photo taken in 2012 (quite similar to Google's).
• A listserv message recounting how the tenants were given less than 24 hours to leave (and a long related rant by the same person)
• Victoria's Ad-Hoc Committee to End Homelessness at one point recommended the building as one possibility for conversion into affordable housing
• This letter gives it as the address of a disabled veteran in 1927
• And here it's given as the address of a solider (and his wife) who enlisted in 1916
• Ad from when the owner was trying to sell it
• Apparently in 2013 a heron was nesting in the "inaccessible" second floor
• People discussed it briefly on a message board in 2013 (in the context of buildings possibly eligible for heritage status)
• Victoria City Council documents from 2014 officially declaring the building "a nuisance" and stating that it needs to demolished; also recounts its unfortunate history since becoming unoccupied and notes that, in July 2014, "further collapse of the building [was] likely should there be a substantial wind storm". The "Notice of Remedial Action Requirement" sent to the owner is also included (page 6), as well as a letter sent to the owner in June 2014 from Victoria's Acting Chief Building Inspector after his post-fire inspection (8), and a letter describing the fire damage in detail (9). This letter recommends that "Danger: Keep Out" signs be placed on the fence, which apparently didn't happen, and that the building be demolished before October to avoid the risk of significant snowfall causing further collapse--which seems laughably over-cautious since we only ever got one slight dusting. Finally, the pdf also includes some post-fire photos (11-13).
• More recently, City of Victoria's bid details for the demolition of the building. The page says there was a meeting about it (a mandatory site viewing) on January 7, 2015, which is weird because demolition had already been started (and I believe completed) at that point. This pdf references a meeting on January 7, 2014, though...
• Also, see my post on 1176 Yates for some quotes from the owner (Robin Kimpton) regarding the two properties.

Can't find anything about the future of the site. I'll have to bike by again sometime soon and see what it looks like now.