Address: 3172 Balfour Avenue
Built: 1912
1912 householder: James M. Murray, grocerThis Craftsman-style house was erected in the summer of 1912 by Robert Wilkie, a building contractor. Earlier that year, he built a home nearby for himself at 3162 Balfour Avenue. Although 3172 Balfour is a more modest version of Wilkie's residence, it still exhibits the characteristics of a high quality Edwardian Craftsman home, with its distinctive gable porch and box bay windows.This was the Murray family home for over twenty years.
James McQuarrie Murray was a grocer and Klondike prospector. He was born in Ontario in 1872 and his wife Mary (née Raith) was born in Quebec a year later. Their daughter, Jean Muriel, was born in New Westminster, BC, in 1899, just before the family moved up to Whitehorse in the Yukon. James Murray worked for a firm that sold provisions to miners. He spent some of his spare time prospecting and in 1905 he discovered a lucrative property near Carcross. After selling his claim to a consortium known as the Big Thing Group, he and his family relocated to Victoria. With the money he made from his mining venture, he was able to purchase this house and invest in the retail grocery business.*
In 1912 Murray was a partner in the Maywood Grocery store on the northwest corner of Douglas Street and Tolmie Avenue. This part of Victoria was then called Maywood and had its own sub-post office. The Maywood Grocery store manager lived nearby at 609 Speed Avenue.
Murray owned and operated several grocery stores over the years. In 1915 he was proprietor of a grocery store at 634 Bay Street, near the corner of Rock Bay and Bay (now demolished and the site of a recycling facility). In 1920, he was the manager of Peoples Cash Grocery at 749 Yates; and from 1925 to 1934 he was manager of Kirkham's Grocery stores in Victoria.
*Information on James Murray and his family provided by Burnside Gorge heritage project volunteer Kathy Kirk.