Address: 3047 Washington Avenue
Built: 1909
1912 householder: Thomas Laing, retired copper mining samplerThis house was built at the start of Victoria's real estate boom by property developer Wesley Mitchell. He was advertising building lots for $700 and ½ acre lots for $1,500.
In June 1911, when the census was taken, it was the home of Thomas Laing. He was born in England and immigrated to the United States in 1887. He worked in the mining industry in Montana. He married Ontario-born Lavinia Ann Pesha in Ontario on 10 February 1897; in the next ten years they moved to Victoria and had a son, Alfred (b. 1901). When Laing's household was enumerated in June 1911, the enumerator noted that Laing was “retired.” Laing was only 43 years old, so the copper mining business must have been good to him!
A family of lodgers was living here 1911: Charles J. Eaton, a farmer; Robert H. J. Eaton, a machinist; and Fenton Eaton, a clerk. As yet, we don't have information about these fellows and how they may have been connected to Thomas and Lavinia Laing.