Research

Repository

Burnaby Heritage Planning

Other Names

Maud & Harriet Woodward Residence

Geographic Access

Burnaby - 5195 Sperling Avenue

Associated Dates

1912

Formal Recognition

Community Heritage Register

Enactment Type

Council Resolution

Enactment Date

26/05/2003

Description

The Woodward House is a two-storey plus basement, wood-framed house with British Arts and Crafts influences. It is set in a wooded landscape on a lakefront property, on Sperling Avenue within the Deer Lake Park Heritage Precinct of Burnaby, with expansive views of the lake.

Heritage Value

Maud Sarah Woodward (1865-1958), a pioneer nurse originally from England, and her sister Harriet Julia Woodward (1879-1969), one of Burnaby’s first teachers, had this large house built in 1912 to replace the smaller cottage they owned nearby at 5141 Sperling Avenue. Farmer, builder and longtime Deer Lake resident, Bernard R. Hill (1858-1939), was hired as the contractor. The Woodward House played an important role in the Deer Lake community. The Woodward sisters were tireless community organizers and volunteers. This house served a number of functions, and in addition to being the sisters’ home was the local post office until 1949 and also a private kindergarten/school until 1935. Originally designed in the British Arts and Crafts style with a simple rustic exterior of cedar shingles, it is an excellent example of the type of residence constructed by middle-class citizens in the Deer Lake neighbourhood. The B.C. Electric Railway's Burnaby Lake Interurban line, which opened June 12, 1911, fostered the development of Deer Lake as well as other Edwardian era neighbourhoods in Burnaby.

Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Woodward House include its: - lakefront location, within the Deer Lake Park Heritage Precinct - residential form, scale and massing as exhibited by its two-storey height, full basement, square floor plan and side-gabled roof - internal red-brick chimneys - British Arts and Crafts features such as cedar shingle siding, extant under later plywood - associated landscape features such as mature coniferous trees

Historic Neighbourhood

Burnaby Lake (Historic Neighbourhood)

Planning Study Area

Morley-Buckingham Area

Builder

Bernard R. Hill

Function

Primary Historic--Single Dwelling

Primary Current--Single Dwelling

Community

Deer Lake

Cadastral Identifier

P.I.D.002-507-064

Boundaries

The Woodward House is comprised of a single residential lot located at 5195 Sperling Avenue, Burnaby.

Area

1788.5

Contributing Resource

Building

Ownership

Public (local)

Documentation

City of Burnaby Planning and Building Department, Heritage Site Files

Street View URL

Google Maps Street View

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