Address: 638 Hillside Avenue
Built: 1908
Householder: Edward G. Kermode; J. Ivan SeabrookThis 1 ½ storey wood frame dwelling, with five rooms and a pantry, was built in 1908 at a cost of $2,200. It has a bellcast hipped roof, with a hipped bellcast extension over the side entry porch. A pair of decorative, chamfered posts support the porch roof. The house has a stone rubble foundation with a prominent belt course. The foundation level is covered with shingles, while the main level is clad in double-drop board siding. The angled-bay on the front of the house was a parlor and originally there were back-to-back fire places in the parlour and dining room.
The building permit for this residence was issued on 2 June 1908 to Mrs. E. G. Kermode. This was probably an investment property for Mrs. Kermode and her husband, Edward G. Kermode, a retired shipwright. They lived two blocks away in a now demolished residence at 438 Hillside Avenue. One of their sons, Frances Kermode, was a taxidermist and naturalist. He was the first curator of the Provincial Museum and the Kermode bear is named after him. Another son, Thomas Kermode, was a planing mill foreman. Of the two sons, he was probably more helpful when it came to erecting this dwelling.
The house was purchased in 1913 by Joseph Ivan Seabrook, scion of another well-known Victoria family. His father, Roads Seabrook, was vice-president of the R. P. Rithet Company; his brother, Bagster Roads Seabrook, had been the general manager of the massive Albion Iron Works in the 1890s. The Bagster Seabrook residence was a mansion at 242 Gorge Road, near the corner of Washington Avenue. The mansion and Bagster Seabrook's successful business career are described in Dennis Minnaker's book The Gorge of Summers Gone: A History of Victoria's Inland Waterway (1998).
Joseph Ivan Seabrook was born in 1866 in New Westminster and raised in Victoria. After leaving school, he worked as a shipping agent and was employed in the family hardware business. He was managing director of the Shore Hardware Company when he purchased this home for his new bride, Olivia Blanche Holloway. She had recently immigrated to Canada from London, England. Their marriage produced a son and two daughters. Mrs. Seabrook died in Victoria at the relatively young age of 47 years in 1930; her husband died in Victoria in 1959 at the age of 92 years. They are buried in the Ross Bay Cemetery.