by Valerie Green –
Today, it is hard to imagine that the busy intersection at West Saanich Road and Wilkinson Road was once farmland with a mere trail connecting the history of two houses in that area.
The history also connects five pioneer families of considerable note: the Yales, the Mansons, the Peers, the Grants and the Maynards. One of the houses was built around 1912 and the other between 1920 and 1925. It is a somewhat long and meandering tale, but one more than worthy of telling and it begins well over 160 years ago.
The land on which the house at #1 – 4580 West Saanich Road stands today dates back to the 1850s. That land was inherited by Aurelia Manson (née Yale) from her father, James Murray Yale, who was the Hudson’s Bay Company Chief Factor of Fort Langley for some 30 years. The town of Yale on the mainland was named for him.
That land and the surrounding acreage on West Saanich Road was then known as Colquitz Farm and the farmhouse that once stood there was lived in by Aurelia’s older sister Eliza and her husband Henry Naysmith Peers, who both died in the 1860s. Aurelia and her husband John Manson, a well-known butcher by trade, then took over the farm. Aurelia’s father, James Yale, lived just to the north of them along West Saanich Road at Stromness Farm, until his own death in 1871 at which time Aurelia inherited all the land.
It wasn’t until around 1912 that the current house (4580) was built on this land by a plumber named Irvin Fairburn Carruthers who did not live there for very long.
Then, from 1918 until 1926 the house was owned by Lillian and George Maynard, members of the well-known family of auctioneers and photographers. George was the grandson of Richard and Hannah Maynard, early photographers in Victoria. They are believed to have also built the store north of this Craftsman-style house at the junction with Wilkinson Road.
After Aurelia Manson had moved from the old Colquitz Farmhouse she went to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Isabella and James Grant, at their home a short distance away (now 4635 West Saanich Road). That house was known as Bonnie Doon, and the family connection began between the two houses.
Today that house at 4635 is well hidden from the road behind trees and shrubbery. Many of the trees that conceal the property are designated heritage trees such as a deodar cedar, a western red cedar, a tulip tree and a golden-edged tulip tree.
Isabella was Aurelia’s oldest daughter and married James Grant in 1891. Grant had immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1887 at the age of 19 and later became a partner in the firm of Thompson and Grant, famous tailors of note on Government Street in Victoria.
A fire destroyed his business in 1903, at which time Isabella and James moved out to the family property on West Saanich Road where they farmed for a number of years. Eventually James became the Markets Commissioner for the provincial Department of Agriculture, and for many years travelled throughout Canada and abroad.
Bonnie Doon (4635) is actually the second house built on its fieldstone foundation because the first building was destroyed by fire, which sadly seemed to be a frequent occurrence in days gone by.
That whole area is very different today. For instance, the land surrounding the 1912 house at 4580 was subdivided back in 1992 and is now part of a strata complex housing 16 Units, the old original house being Unit #1.
The history of the two houses and the five families that once connected them is lost in the sands of time and in the name of progress.
Valerie Green is an author/historian and can be reached at valgee@shaw.ca.
