649 Manchester Road

Address: 649 Manchester Road
Built: 1909
1912 householder: William Howes, wood mill foreman

The building permit for this house was issued on 25 July 1910. It authorized the construction of a six-room, wood frame dwelling at a cost of nearly $2,000. The permit was issued to the owner, William Howes, and the house was constructed by William Dunford & Son. Dunford's firm built several other houses in this part of the Burnside Gorge neighbourhood, including his own home at 640 Dunedin Street.

This colonial-style bungalow has a hipped bellcast roof with a front facing hipped bellcast dormer. It has right facing steps and a half verandah that is supported by turned columns with decorative capitals. There is a an elegant mullion paned glass window facing the porch and a similar “piano window” on the left side of the house. Decorative windows also adorn the octagonal front bay window. The original structure has been raised and converted into several suites. However, the exterior of the building has been beautifully maintained. The double-drop board siding is original and the shingles on the foundation level replicate original cedar shakes.

William Howes and his wife Alice Audrey Howes were born in London, England and came to Canada in 1887. They were living in Victoria on Herald Street in 1892. Mr. Howes was then working as a carpenter. When they were enumerated in this house in June 1911, he was 51 years old and she was 48 years old. They did not have any children. He gave his occupation as “manufacturer's agent” to the enumerator, but in the 1912 directory he is listed as a foreman at Woodworkers Ltd. That firm, located on the corner of Market Street and Douglas Street, manufactured of doors, windows, lathes, shingles and other residential building materials. (Another Woodworkers Ltd. employee lived around the corner at the former Dunford home at 640 Dunedin in 1912.)

William Howes later established a cabinet making business, known as Dickson & Howes, and worked as a carpenter for the firm of Moore-Whittington. He died in Victoria in 1942. Alice Howes, who lived in this house until the mid-1940s, died in 1958.