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 - Victoria, British Columbia"
Photo Clip: Victoria Daily Times (1958)
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia, situated at Vancouver Island's most southern 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 it could, hoping to preserve its land and beaches for future public use.
"1909::Gonzales Park Plan"
Photo 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 of the parcels stretched out from Gonzales Hill to Gonzales Point and Shoal Bay (McNeill Bay). The third was the rest of the ocean-facing side of the hill stretching between Shoal Bay and Foul Bay, excluding the Chinese Cemetery on the jutting piece of land known then as Foul Point. Today, this point is known as Harling Point, a name that provides a clue as to how a house that was built there came to be known as haunted.
"1910::House For Sale"
Photo 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 their investments and return with extracted mineral samples from their mines. When his ship made a quick stop in Victoria, he took the opportunity to have a look around and fell in love with what he saw. Before he left town, he purchased the jutting piece of property known as Foul Point and arranged to have a large house built there to live in when he returned.
"1913::Expandable Unobstructed View"
Photo Clip: Victoria Daily Times (1913)
Victoria, British Columbia
The house was built as planned, but the following year, the stranger changed his mind. The enormous house on the point lay empty for years. Realtors did everything they could to sell it, going as far as completing a few of the rooms that were left unfinished. Stories about the spooky-looking empty house on the point and its mysterious owner began to conjure. 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 situated on the east side of Foul Bay at the far side of the Chinese Cemetery. The 3-story house dwarfed the neighbouring homes and sat like a beacon on the very tip of Foul Point where it reached out to the Trial Islands. Inside the house was a sparkling chandelier casting light on an elegant staircase that provided passage between the ballroom on the main floor and its billiard room on the top floor. It was, in all its grandness, a sturdy home... 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 who was 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 had made a trip out to the Trial Islands to collect bark for their woodstoves. Having gathered up a large supply, they were forced to make two trips. On the return of their second trip, a sudden squall churned up the swirling waters of the tide and upset their boat within view of the 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 powerful. Out of their four crafts launched, three were sunk. A strong gust of wind had overturned the first rescuer's boat just as he had plucked the drowning woman from the water. He managed to swim back to safety, leaving the woman behind. The next two rescuers barely made it as far when their boat was 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 was the same. It had capsized not far from shore and forced its two experienced rescuers to swim back in the freezing water. They returned to safety without help, but for one of them, the shock was too much for his heart and he died shortly after reaching the shore. This man's 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 had 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 more 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 the spooky-looking house. But that wasn't the last story to be told of the Smiths and the house on Harling Point.
"1958::The Last Scene of the Haunted House Before Demolition" Photo: (tbd)
After receiving news of Evelyn Smith's death, a local newspaper editor shared his own memories of the Smith family and their house which was thought to be haunted. He recalled his childhood days exploring the rocky shoreline of Harling Point and the wonders of the oddly huge 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 out into the warm sunshine to play. He shared in great detail his time spent in Mr. Smith's old longboat that he had painted sky blue, and the gramophone 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's tremendous display of bravery that stormy night long ago, the name Foul Point was changed to Harling Point to forever honour the lost hero. It was later learned that Dr. Harling was the uncle of Art Stott, the young reporter who had successfully rescued a woman during the stormy night on Harling Point.
"1957::Haunted House For Sale"
Clip: Times Colonist (1957)
Victoria, British Columbia
When the home was abandoned, the people who considered it haunted came to the house hoping to get a closer look. Sometimes they would simply look, other times they would be sure to break a window or damage the home in some way. The house was torn down after it sold in 1958 and the new owners immediately began to build their new home on the lot integrating whatever they could salvage from the big old Harling Point House.
"1990::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 purchased in 1902 and saw its first interment the same year. To the right of the cemetery, a rectangle outlines a proposed new building (which was never built) and the property beside it with its new structure built using much of the old haunted house.
"1934::The Reporter. The Olympian."
Clip: Vancouver Sun (1934)
Vancouver, British Columbia
The young editor who was then a reporter and saved a life in that cruel and fatal storm, was also a 1932 Canadian Olympic Diver. It was the collective display of bravery during this fatal storm that prompted a name change from Foul Point to Harling Point.