It’s one of the oldest remaining homes in Victoria, has two acres of heritage-designated gardens, the largest collection of in situ household items in North America and the longest remaining natural shoreline of the Gorge waterway.
Point Ellice House is also the last remaining residence in Rock Bay, which was once one of Victoria’s first residential neighbourhoods. Another Rock Bay home near Point Ellice House was just demolished this summer.
Thankfully, Point Ellice House, a Picturesque Italianate one-storey cottage, while seemingly out of place in an industrial development, will not meet a similar fate because of its significance not only to the city but the province. It’s also a National Historic Site of Canada.
British Columbia owns the house and all of its contents after buying it in 1975 from the last survivors of the O’Reilly family, who owned the house for more than 100 years.
Three generations of the O’Reilly family lived here, and the artifacts, furniture and documents they left behind give a real sense of how the Victorian gentry lived from early settler Colonial times.
“We can learn a lot about the human and natural history of Victoria by visiting and studying Point Ellice House,” says its executive director, Kelly Black.
“It’s important to have places where people who live in Victoria, who live in B.C. and visitors can come and learn about the past and how it shapes our present.”
The house, located at 2616 Pleasant St., was purchased in 1867 by Peter O’Reilly. He expanded the house and landscaped its gardens between 1875 and 1889.
Peter O’Reilly was a prominent government official the time, most well known as B.C.’s Indian Reserve Commissioner, responsible for assigning reserve lands without treaty, between 1880 and 1898.
He had four children with Caroline Agnes Trutch — Frank, Charlotte, Mary and Jack.
The last O’Reilly to live here was Jack’s son John Windham O’Reilly, who was born at Point Ellice House, and took over its care after his father’s death in 1946.
It was at this point the house also faced possible demolition when his widow was approached to sell the house to a neighbouring industrial complex. However, John’s wife, Inez Elson, who had a passion for historical preservation, was able to convince her mother-in-law not to sell the property.
John and Inez began their own restoration of the home, with the goal of turning it into a museum. Unfortunately, the museum was not self-sustaining and the O’Reillys eventually sold it, but to the province, which purchased the house and all of its contents.
Black explains industrial lands have always been around Point Ellice House, but things really started to change in the 1930s when more and more families owed the city back taxes and lost their homes to the city.
In turn the city would take over the homes and sell them off to commercial businesses.
By the 1970s the vast majority of the single family residential homes were gone from Rock Bay, says Black.
What makes Point Ellice particularly significant, besides the fact it remains, is the home has more than 12,000 objects in its collection that were used by the O’Reillys over the 108 years they occupied the home.
This included everything from furniture, clothes, fine china to their board games and kitchen utensils.
“The family never got rid of anything essentially,” says Black.
“They were people who had a particular affinity for the past and they treasured this place and the things found inside it so they kept it…. Imagine you are born into a house your parents have lived in for already 20 years and then you have children and your brothers and sisters have children and you all live in the house, so all of these objects never found their way to other places.”
With so many objects in the collection the 91原创 Island Local History Society, which operates the house with financial assistance from the province, is able to pull specific items each month to feature.
This month, for instance, with a feature exhibit about animals, the society had horse racing leaflets on display. They show the horse races the family attended in 1910 in Scotland and London, along with the menu of what they would have eaten at the races.
Asked how valuable the entire collection would be, Black answered “You can’t put a dollar value on things.”
“There’s 12,000 objects. We have a carriage that we are bringing out of storage that’s a closed carriage from 1896. We have a golden harp, two pianos, the Trutch family bible from 1725, a library of 450 books, many children’s books, travel books, china sets that are quite priceless, and my favourite — a Wedgewood cheese dish in the dining room.
“What’s most special is everything together in one place. You aren’t going to get that almost anywhere,” he says.
Touring the home is truly like stepping back in time and provides a glimpse into the everyday activities the O’Reilly family enjoyed.
For instance, in the drawing room, which has the harp and a piano, it’s easy to imagine the family gathered here listening to music.
According to information provided on site for visitors, the O’Reilly’s had a “lively and varied social calendar.” Entertaining was a way for people of influence to reinforce their social, political and economic ties to ensure their privileged position would continue.
The O’Reillys were so well connected they even entertained Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and his wife on Aug. 5, 1886.
There’s also a working end of the house, where the domestic staff plated meals for the O’Reillys and their guests. In 1887 the family employed a cook, maid, nursemaid, teacher for their children and on an occasional basis a cleaner and a gardener.
Since February more than 1,800 people have visited Point Ellice House. It’s open to the public on weekends, between noon and 4 p.m. Admission is by donation.
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