Address: 3050 Carroll Street
Built: 1911
1912 householder: Leonard Spragge, gasoline and automobile supply dealer

This attractive residence was built by David H. Bale, a well-respected contractor. Building plans for the residence are dated 29 March 1911 and Bale's name is on the septic permit for this property. Bale built many other high-quality homes in Victoria, including one at 3126 Balfour Avenue. This home was built for Leonard T. Spragge.

The house has a recessed, offset porch part way down the right side, with front facing steps. It is clad in shingles. There is an octagonal bay and a tripartite mullion window on the front of the house, and cantilevered box bays on the left side. It has a bellcast hipped roof, with a hipped front dormer. The gable side dormers may be recent additions.

Leonard Tait Spragge was the proprietor of Spragge & Co., a firm that advertised as “dealers in gasoline, kerosene, lubricating oils and greases. Autos supplied at warehouse or goods delivered.” The company warehouses were located at 710 Caledonia Avenue, near Douglas Street, and on Old Esquimalt Road.

Spragge was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1881 and moved to Victoria at a young age with his family. His father, David Spragge, was a coal merchant and the family home was on Menzies Street in James Bay. His wife, Mildred Arton Middleton, born in Ontario in 1888, was the daughter of a Victoria realtor, James Middleton. The Middleton family lived on Simcoe Street in James Bay. The marriage of Leonard Spragge and Mildred Middleton took place in this newly-completed home on 7 June 1911.

Together with adjacent properties at 3040 Carroll Street and 3054 Carroll Street, this house makes a handsome troika of Burnside Gorge heritage homes.

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