Address: 537 Burnside Road East
Built: c. 1912
1912 householder: Thomas O. Hole, dairyman

This Edwardian Vernacular Arts & Crafts-style residence has a high front gable, gable dormers and a side entrance. It is now stuccoed and most of its original decorative features, such as finials at the top of the gables, have been removed. But it is still a distinctive-looking residence on a block that consists mainly of 1940s era houses.

Prior to the First World War, this property supported a small diary. Devon Dairy was owned by Thomas Owen Hole. Born in Somerset, England, he came to Canada with his wife, Lizzie Gibbs Hole and three children in 1908. Mrs. Hole was born in London, England; Arthur Reginald, Elsie Winnifred, and Gwendoline Mabel were born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England.

As a youth, Arthur was a carrier for the Daily Colonist; he later qualified as an accountant. He married married Eleanor Maude Zillinsky at the Centennial United Church in 192X. Elsie worked as a sales clerk before her marriage to Horace Newell in 1926. They were married in St. John's Anglican Church in Victoria. Gwendoline was a school teacher and married Joseph Skipsey, a carpenter from Port Alberni, at the First Congregational Church in Victoria in 1923. They established their home in Port Alberni.

Thomas Hole died at the age of 81 years in Port Alberni in 1947. He was predeceased by his wife. He may have been related to William Hole who lived at 468 Cecelia Road.

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