Revisiting the McCandlish House Postcard, Victoria, BC

Five years ago I wrote a post about a real photo postcard, written and sent by Emma McCandlish, a Victoria boarding house owner, with an image of her home on the front. In the post, I wondered if the buildings behind Emma's house at 63 Superior were BC's Parliament Buildings. Street numbering changed in Victoria in 1907, and I suspect 63 Superior may have become 534 Superior. Recently, I found this obituary in the Vancouver Daily World from the 25th of May 1921, which suggests that McCandlish's former home "at the rear of the Parliament Buildings" had been purchased by the provincial government.

I was in Victoria en route to San Francisco week before last and stopped by Munro's Books. There, I discovered a new-to-me print resource, This Old House: Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods by the Victoria Heritage Foundation for the City of Victoria. This four volume set, arranged by Victoria neighbourhoods, is an invaluable and informative resource that details historic homes in BC's capital city. I didn't have much time to browse through all of  the volumes, but I did locate an image and brief history of Emma McCandlish's last home at 422 Menzies, a house which was moved from another location to Menzies Street in July of 1910.

More research will have to be done to confirm that the home at 63/534 Superior was demolished and absorbed by the Parliament grounds. I was also curious about Emma's comment on the postcard that there had been some "severe weather" in Victoria around the time of her correspondence to Mrs. Harlock. I had a cursory look through the Daily Colonist newspaper for a couple days before and after the 20th of January, but didn't find any mention of unusually bad weather.

It's amazing how one postcard can generate so many questions and research possibilities!


Here's the original post from November 16, 2013:

First off, today's a good day to celebrate.  Family Photo Reunion has been in existence for one full year now.  I wasn't sure I could make it to November 16th,  through what has proven to be a very busy year, but here we are!

Our post today revolves around this real postcard from Victoria, BC.  It was written by Emma McCandlish, and addressed to Mrs. W. Harlock at 181 Fort Street, Victoria.  Emma McCandlish ran a boarding house in Victoria in 1892 at 63 Superior.  She was still at this property in 1906.  While I didn't have access to the 1907 BC Directory, I did find Emma in the directory for the following year at 534 Superior.

I had a little cyber-walk down Superior Street, thanks to Google Maps today, and I couldn't find a house similar to this one.  If this is, indeed, a picture of her own home, I have a feeling that house is long gone.  Do you see that stately building off in the distance on the left hand side of the image?  I'm wondering if it might be one of the Parliament buildings.

The BC Archives has a collection of correspondence once belonging to Emma McCandlish.  I think it would be fun to have a look the next time I'm down in Victoria.

If you'd like to get a sense of what Victoria was like in 1907, I found a great little video on Youtube.  Emma McCandlish would have been very familiar with these sights.  Who knows, she might even be in the film somewhere.  Enjoy!