At the southernmost tip of Vancouver Island stood a very large house. Many considered it to be haunted.
"1958::The Haunted House of Harling Point in Victoria, British Columbia"
Photo Clip: Victoria Daily Times (1958)
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia, situated on Vancouver Island's southernmost tip, was once known as Little Britain, with large sweeping estates owned by its earliest settlers. At the turn of the 20th century, as the last of the island's pioneers told stories of adventure in the Wild West, these grand estates were being divided and sold. The municipality of Oak Bay set about acquiring as much of this property as possible, hoping to preserve its land and beaches for future public use.
"1909::Gonzales Park Plan"
Clip: Victoria Daily Times (1909)
Victoria, British Columbia
In 1909, the property at the foot of Gonzales Hill was divided into three separate parcels and sold by its owner, world-renowned architect Francis Rattenbury, whose iconic Empress Hotel had just celebrated its Grand Opening the previous year. Two parcels stretched from Gonzales Hill to Gonzales Point and Shoal Bay (McNeill Bay). The third was the rest of the ocean-facing side of Gonzales Hill, stretching between Shoal Bay and Foul Bay, excluding the Chinese Cemetery on the jutting piece of land known as Foul Point. Today, this point is known as Harling Point, a name that provides a clue as to how a house built there came to be known as haunted.
"1910::House For Sale"
Clip: Victoria Daily Colonist (1910)
Victoria, British Columbia
In the same year, a wealthy stranger passed through Victoria on his way home to Glasgow, Scotland. He was the silent partner of John Stewart MacArthur, inventor of the MacArthur-Forrester Process that revolutionized how the earth's gold was mined. He had journeyed to Dawson City in Canada's new Yukon Territory to inspect the company's investments and extract mineral samples from their mines. On his way home, when his ship made a quick stop in Victoria, he took the opportunity to explore the area and fell in love with what he saw. Before leaving town, he purchased the jutting piece of property known as Foul Point and arranged to have a large house built for when he returned.
"1913::Expandable Unobstructed View"
Clip: Victoria Daily Times (1913)
Victoria, British Columbia
The house was built as planned, but the stranger changed his mind about returning to Victoria. The enormous unfinished house that lay empty at the point was abandoned. Realtors did what they could to sell it, but between the spooky-looking house near the cemetery and its mysterious owner, old ghost stories began to resurface. In 1914, it finally sold.
"1951::The House That Dwarfs the Others (Left of Photo)"
Photo: BC Archives (G-05359)
In 1914, Victoria postal clerk James Smith moved his family into a big house on the east side of Foul Bay, at the far side of the Chinese Cemetery. It was a 3-story house with a full basement that dwarfed the neighbouring homes. It sat like a beacon on the tip of Foul Point, reaching out to the Trial Islands. Inside the house was a sparkling chandelier casting light on an elegant staircase that provided passage between a ballroom on the main floor and a billiard room on the top floor. It was a sturdy home in all its grandness... and it had to be. Within the first few years, the Smiths learned that, like their house, they too had to be sturdy. They became the keepers of the water surrounding their home when, year after year, they raced to rescue someone clinging to an overturned boat and at risk of being carried away by the strong current. After two decades and many lives saved, the most heroic rescue the Smiths had ever endured came to pass.
"1934::The Winter Storm"
Clip: The Vancouver Sun (1934) Vancouver, British Columbia
On a cold night in January 1934, a man and a woman rowed their boat to the Trial Islands to collect bark for their woodstoves. With a bit of luck, they managed to gather a large supply, but it would take two boat trips to get it all back home. On the return of their second trip, a sudden storm churned and swirled the waters of the tide rip and upset their boat within view of the concerned people on the shore. Men in the area bravely rushed to the rocky ledge of the point and launched whatever they could use as a rescue boat, but the gale was too strong. Out of their four crafts launched, three were sunk. A strong gust of wind had overturned the first rescuer's boat just after he had plucked the drowning woman from the water. He managed to swim back to safety but was forced to leave the woman behind. The second duo of rescuers had barely made it as far when their boat also overturned. They were saved only by the outstretched hands of a living chain of men and boys reaching out to them from the shore. The third boat of rescuers met the same challenge. Their boat had capsized not far from shore, forcing them to swim back in the freezing water. They made it to the shore without help, but for one of them, the shock was too much for his heart to bear, and he died shortly after reaching the shore. His name was Dr. Fred Harling, a dentist in the area and the namesake of Foul Point's new name, Harling Point.
"1957::The Abandoned Haunted House"
Photo: Oak Bay Archives (2012-001-028)
Just two months after the Harling Point incident, postal clerk James Smith also died, his body having succumbed to a fatal illness. His wife Evelyn, who had made it her job to ready the hot cocoa during each rescue, remained in the house for many years after her husband's death. At 87 years old, she finally left to live with her daughter in Vancouver and died several months later. The newly abandoned house became the perfect hangout for those who had spent years laughing and gawking at its spookiness. But that wasn't the last story to be told of the Smiths and their house on Harling Point.
"1958::The Last Scene of the Haunted House Shortly Before Demolition" Photo: (tbd)
After receiving news of Evelyn Smith's death, a local newspaper editor shared his memories of the Smith family and the house that was thought to be haunted. He recalled his childhood days exploring the rocky shoreline of Harling Point and the wonders of the oddly massive house on the far side of the cemetery. He remembered his friend who lived there and his mom, who would invite them in for a plate of oatcakes and a glass of milk before sending them back into the warm sunshine to play. He shared in great detail the time he spent in Mr. Smith's old longboat, which he had painted sky blue, and the gramophone that he would play as they cruised around Discovery Island. In a small way, with his stories, the editor saved the memories of the house just as the house and its occupants had saved many lives. The most interesting story from the editor's past, however, was the story he never told. When he was a young man, he had saved the life of a total stranger. His boat was the fourth boat that bravely took on the storm that one dark night long ago when all the others sank. In his small dinghy, the young editor had rowed out to the couple's overturned boat. With enough room to take only one of them back to shore at a time, he rowed the woman back to safety first and saved her life. When he returned to their overturned boat, still tossing about in the storm, he found the woman's companion had been lost to the tides.
"1934::From 'Foul Point' to 'Harling Point'"
Clip: Vancouver Sun (1934)
Vancouver, British Columbia
After Doctor Harling displayed tremendous bravery, the name Foul Point was changed to Harling Point to honour its lost hero forever. It was later learned that Dr. Harling was the uncle of Art Stott, the newspaper editor and young reporter who had successfully rescued the woman in distress during that fateful stormy night on the point.
"1957::Haunted House For Sale"
Clip: Times Colonist (1957)
Victoria, British Columbia
The house was abandoned once again, but this time, visitors who went inside to get a closer look would sometimes break a window. In 1958, the house was torn down by its new owners, who immediately began to build their new home on the lot, integrating whatever they could salvage from the old Harling Point House. The house once thought to be haunted lived on in the new home on the point.
"1958::Using the Old to Build the New"
Photo Clip: Times Colonist (1990)
Victoria, British Columbia
The Chinese Cemetery (at the bottom of this birds-eye-view photo) was established in 1902 and saw its first interment at the end of the same year. To the right of the cemetery, a rectangle outlines a proposed new building that was never built, and the property beside it shows the new structure built with parts of the old haunted house.
"1934::The Reporter, the Olympian, the Hero of Harling Point"
Clip: Vancouver Sun (1934)
Vancouver, British Columbia
The heroic young editor, Arthur Stott, who had saved a life in that cruel and fatal storm, was also a 1932 Canadian Olympic Diver.