Address: 3135 Washington Avenue
Built: 1913
Householder: John Burns, teamster

This small cottage, set way back from the road and overlooking Cecelia Ravine, was built 1913 at a cost of just $700. The 1-storey cottage had 4 rooms. It has a wide front gable with a pent roof over a box bay and a recessed porch. It has a corbelled brick chimney. The dwelling may have been built as a speculative investment property by Thomas Bird, a carpenter who lived on Maple Street in Saanich. He is identified as the owner on the building permit (dated 29 April 1913) for this property. But John Burns lived here a century ago. Burns was a teamster, employed on the construction of a branch line of the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway. The railway line, completed in 1916, ran from Vic West to Sidney and was later incorporated into the Canadian National Railway system. The railway bed ran along Cecelia Ravine and is now part of the Galloping Goose trail. Back in the day, this cottage on the east side of Washington Avenue near Burnside Road would have been a been handy location to work for Mr. Burns.

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