Address: 3106 Washington Avenue
Built: 1915
Householder: Walter Carter, streetcar motorman

This handsome Edwardian Arts & Crafts-style residence was built in 1915 and so is slightly outside our chronological period. But it is a very attractive house and should be noted. It replaced an earlier, smaller dwelling at 3108 Washington Avenue: a one-storey frame house built in 1907 at a cost of $700 for Walter Carter. The 1907 dwelling was probably intended as a temporary abode. The house that now stands on this site, with a civic address of 3106 Washington Avenue, has an inset part-width porch, front gable with a tripartite sash window and shed dormer.

The owner, Walter Carter, was born in England and came to Canada in 1876. He was 34 years old when he was enumerated in 1911. His Newfoundland-born wife, Rachel, was 33 years old and their daughter Bessie, who was born in BC, was 7 years old.

Carter was employed as a streetcar driver – an occupation also known as motorman or motorneer – when he moved into this house in 1915. But two years later, he was working as a guard in the provincial jail at Wilkinson Road in Victoria. The next year, 1918, he was working as a guard at the Okalla Prison Farm on the mainland. The 1920 Victoria City directory indicates that he was living at 3108 Washington Avenue (now 310^ Washington Avenue) but does not give his occupation. He is not listed in the 1921 Victoria City directory.

So far, we have not determined why Mr. Carter left the BC Electric Railway Company to become a prison guard or why he disappears from city directories after 1920. This is one of several Burnside Gorge neighbourhood mysteries.

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