From Colwood Chronicles, From First Nations to Incorporation,
By William Sylvester 2013.

Havenwood.

At the same time as the stone masons, carpenters and other laborers were working on James Dunsmuir’s Hatley Park, another project on a much smaller scale was underway right next door on the south end of Esquimalt Lagoon. In 1908, in amongst the huge cedars and Douglas fir, Louis and Edith Bessemer were building a small stone cottage. The land had originally belonged to John Switzer who ran the Belmont tannery on the opposite side of the lagoon. He had purchased part of it in 1872 and the rest in 1881. A barrister named Robert Edwin Jackson subsequently purchased the land from Switzer in 1889 and Bessemer bought it from him in 1907.

The Bessemer ‘s niece, Beatrice Monks, came to live with them in 1908 and stayed for a few years. Her mother, Madame Maude Monks, an accomplished violinist, played in Victoria theatres and often at balls held by the Dunsmuir’s. Bea Monks later started her own business, which women seldom did in those days, Monks Multigraph Letter Service, and operated it for 45 successful years until 1968. As a youngster she would spend time at the Bessemer home and lived there with her mother from 1922 to 1925 after the Bessemers had departed the area to return to California. She never forgot her days on Esquimalt Lagoon and in a December 1925 article in the Daily Colonist she was quoted, remembering “the ground was covered with dog tooth lilies and purple ladies’ slippers growing through a carpet of thick moss. I also enjoyed rowing my boat on the Lagoon.” she also recalled how the local First Nations people would wash their clothes and themselves in the streams and lie on the grassy banks as they dried. “The Indians would bring us salmon and help themselves from our fruit trees.”  With the exception of some clearing done in the early 1920’s the land remained the same for a number of years. Then, according to Land Titles, in 1925 the area was purchased by Herbert and Charlotte Pendray and would never be the same again. Herbert Geoffrey Pendray  was one of the four sons of William Joseph Pendray. Born in April 1885 he grew up to take his place in the family business, British American Paint Company, better known as BAPCO. He served as plant foreman, secretary treasurer and vice president. He married Charlotte Emma Geraldine Warwicker, in September 1910 and sometime after they decided that they needed a summer home and purchased the ocean view estate they called Havenwood. Construction began on the Mediterranean style villa in 1925 using native wood and stone and with extensive use of wood paneling and leaded glass. The living room had a fireplace decorated with California tile and the Conservatory, known as the Palm Room, boasted two fountains in its sunken confines. The Pendrays lived in the old Bessemyer stone cottage until their house was finished in 1927, alternating between it and their Belleville Street home.

Outside, in the 80 acres surrounding the house, the Pendrays had a Japanese Garden installed reportedly by the same gentleman who worked on Dunsmuir’s garden, along with lily ponds, a rose garden, meandering paths, stone bridges and a water wheel and mill built on Bee Creek. Tended by 16 gardeners it was said to have rivaled Butchart’s Garden for its fountains, streams and flowers.

On the West side of the house averies were built to accommodate what was called “the most interesting collections of birds in the Pacific Northwest”. Some 375 birds from all over the world including Australia, India, South America and the Southern States were kept in the averies. Most of the birds were acquired by the Pendrays on their trips abroad and with few exceptions, most of them thrived. During the colder months an oil burning stove and sun lamps kept the tropical birds comfortable.

In May 1934 Emily car parked her caravan, known as “The Elephant”, at the foot of Lagoon Road, close to the beach, nearest Esquimalt Lagoon. The weather was not conductive to sketching however and she was driven inland by wind, torrential rains and high tides. The caravan was towed up the hill to rest in a field owned by a Scot named Strathdee. Here she sketched what would become the painting Stumps and Sky. Emily was to return to the field in September and continued to sketch and write.

More building took place around 1935 when a caretaker cottage, barn and greenhouse were constructed. By this time, Havenwood may have become a permanent residence for the Pendray family.

Emily Carr is believed to have set up her caravan in May 1940 on the property, termed her “flimsy shack” near a “proud, aloof manor house…”. She was just recovering from a heart attack at and with her maid she ventured back to the area near the gravel pit she had visited a number of times before. The painting Light Woods in Spring is thought to be the result of this sojourn.

Charlotte Pendray died on November 7, 1955 and her husband, Herbert Pendray died in January 17, 1956, of coronary sclerosis, both at Havenwood. The house and grounds passed to their nephew, William Allen Pendray as executor, who sold it in 1958 for $85,000 to Charles Warren Beeler and his wife, Anne Whitehead Beeler under the operating company Sulphur Springs Land and Water Company. Their original plan was to turn the mansion into a nursing home but according to the Colonist, “fire regulations dictated that some of the two- foot- thick walls would have to be torn out for that change to be made”. Instead, the house was renamed Seascape Lodge and refurbished to accommodate 55 guests as an exclusive health spa and country club. Rates were “as little as $15 a day, with everything included”. Antique and period furniture was purchased for about $25,000 and installed in the building. On the grounds was a cottage, rowboat, wharf and later an 18- hole- golf course was built to expand on the other recreational activities of badminton, table tennis, fishing, biking and relaxing in the 30 cabanas set up along the beach. The land title was transferred to Ann Beelers name in December 1959.

Charles Warren Beeler later ran afoul of the law and fled to the United States to escape fraud charges. An attempt was made to extradite him from San Francisco, but he was apparently able to avoid prosecution by evoking a statute of limitations clause allowing only three years for fraud. Beeler, who had been born in Nova Scotia 65 years before and later became a U.S. citizen, was accused “of defrauding 9 persons of $5000 to $20,000 in connection with the sale of stock for construction of a Victoria Chateau”. While it appears Beeler “beat the rap” on the Victoria charges he was indicted by a federal grand jury along with two other men in June 1972 on charges of “using more than $200,000 in’ destroyed stock certificates to obtain loans and settle bills in the San Francisco area”. In 1980 Beeler was further charged with Interstate travel in connection with criminal conduct and conspiracy to commit arson.

Havenwood was next purchased in 1966 Blarney Properties Limited who continued with the exclusive luxury country club plan. Not long afterwards the estate was converted to a home for seniors known as the Heather Bell Gardens Rest Home. In 1968 the estate became a residential school instituted by Doctor Charles Gregory and known as the Island Child Development and Research Centre. The name was changed a year later to Pacific Centre for Human Development and 28 children with developmental difficulties resided here. A summer camp program began in 1977 and the land, which until then had been leased, was purchased by Pacific Centre in 1980.

In 1983 two young arsonists broke into the house and started a fire which spread up the main stairwell and damaged part of the upstairs. Over the next three years renovations restored much of the old building. The name was changed again to Pacific Centre Family Services Association in 1968.

Finally, Coast Collective moved into the Heatherbell Road building. Artists from the West Shore developed the area into a popular art and culture centre complete with classes and artists working on site. The barn has become a working studio for artists. Havenwood was purchased by Corporate Hospitality Developments of Calgary in 2007.

Over the years much of the land has been sold and only 12 acres of the original 80 remain. The exterior of the house looks much like it did in its glory days with the round boulder walls of the first floor. The 30 centimeter stone sundial in the garden, placed around 1930, and accessed by a stone path, still stands near a large tulip tree. Its condition has a deteriorate over the years until recently restored, cleaned and new brass gnomon installed. Inside the ballroom has been divided into offices and the conservatory has a false floor over the fountain and its plumbing and tiles.