I’m not a historian by any means, but the research I did do provided me with some insight into the history of this house.
In 1911 there were no houses on this block. In 1912 my house appeared as the first house on my side of the street, built by a Scottish immigrant named Robert Rigg (born 1882), who was a carpenter. The value of the house was stated as $3,500. A house across the street was also built in 1912, and the following year two houses appeared a few lots down, to the east.
The 1916 census shows that Mr. Rigg was 34 years old at the time and had arrived from Scotland with his wife Agnes and son Robert in 1911. Robert must have been born just before their travel to Canada. The Riggs resided in the house until 1922.
Between 1922 and 2006, when I bought this house, there were 19 other residents and there appear to be short periods when the house was vacant. The longest resident stayed 12 years (Edward Ferguson, a CN Clerk, who lived here between 1941 and 1953). I’m next in line at 10 years (as of the fall of 2016).
Some other interesting residents were James Bailey, a Land Titles Clerk (1925-1927); Herbert Godby, a grocer on Broadway (1928), James Dier (1929-1936), a carpenter and the owner who installed lead pipes for access to city water in 1929; Walter Sacha (1962-1969), owner of Hub City Bindery, who added the attached garage in 1965; and Robert Pywell (1994-1998), who had an engineered structural wall built to support the east basement wall that was buckling.
Sometime prior to 1965 stucco was applied over top of the original bevel Douglas fir wood siding. An article relating to this practice from New Westminster, BC, suggests that this was a trend between 1940 and 1950, a post-war effort to encourage spending.
My interest in the history of this house is piqued and I only wish I could speak to the prior residents. I’d love to know what the house was like when they lived here, what changes they made and why, and why they left. Photographs would be awesome!
I’m sure there’s more information out there about this house, but that will have to wait for when I have time.