Silvain Pela House

309 East Santa Rosa Street

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Silvain Pela and his brother, Victor, immigrated to Victoria from Lissey Meuse, France, about 1848. In June 1868, when he was twenty-six years old, Silvain married twenty-year-old Elizabeth Meyer, a young woman whose family had emigrated from Eptingen, Switzerland.

 

In October 1870, Silvain received his U.S. citizenship. He was deputy sheriff for several years, and during a brief period in 1873 he was co-owner of The Lone Star Saloon.

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In 1875, Silvain Pela bought the lot where the Pela House now stands. The house was built in 1884, and its legal description is “Old Town Site, Block 157, parcel 4.” The address of the structure has always been 309 East Santa Rosa Street.

 

At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, Santa Rosa Street was a promenade street, perhaps because the train station was located at one end, and downtown and Main Street were located at the other, with the Pela House located between.

 

Santa Rosa Street, with its canopy of shade trees, has always been one of the loveliest in the city. From 1881–1896 The Victoria Street Railway Company operated a mule drawn trolley, with one line running down the center of Santa Rosa Street and passing in front of the Pela House. The trolley took passengers from the train station to the downtown area.

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You can learn more about this home in Volume I of Historic Homes of Victoria, available here online through our SHOP or at the Victoria Preservation, Inc. office.