Address: 2624 Douglas Street
Built: c. 1907
Householders: Robert L. Petticrew, tailor; Frederick R. Bullock, grocerThe original dwelling is almost hidden behind the distinctive stucco facade of Tang's Pagoda, a clothing store that operated here for many decades. The former clothing store is now occupied by a couple of commercial enterprises, while the main building has been converted into apartments. But some distinctive architectural elements of this Edwardian-era house can still be seen from the street. The elements include a hipped roof with side gable, modillions under the eaves of the roof, and cutaway box windows with decorative brackets. This must have been a very attractive residence a century ago. It was called “Carsphairn” and initially it was the Pettircrew family home.
Robert Petticrew was born in Scotland in 1865 and immigrated to Canada in 1885. He came to Victoria via Ontario in 1889 and established himself as a tailor. In the 1890s and early 1900s, he ran a tailor shop on lower Johnson Street. In 1897 he married Florence Elliott, an Ontario-born woman of Irish descent. They had two children: a son, Robert, born in 1899; and a daughter, Florence, born in 1910.
Robert Petticrew is first shown at this address in the 1908 Victoria City Directory. The house was apparently named for his birthplace in Scotland. (Carsphairn is a village in Kircudbrightshire, in the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland.) The Petticrew family lived here until 1911, when they moved to Saanich. Robert Petticrew was then working for the BC Steam Dye Works company on Yates Street. company. He later worked for New Method Laundry and Dry Cleaners, a venerable Victoria firm located on North Park Street. He died in 1946 and Florence Petticrew died in 1950. They were both interred in Colwood Burial Park.
Frederick and Mary Bullock were the next residents of this home. He operated a grocery store on Oak Bay Avenue near Foul Bay Road; she was the proprietor of the Park Tea Rooms on the corner of Douglas Street and Simcoe Street near Beacon Hill Park. The Bullocks moved out of this place in 1913 and for the next few years it was occupied by a succession of different families. It became the home of Jack and Bessie Chang in the mid 1940s. They operated a clothing and notions store, called Tang's Pagoda, from this location for over fifty years.