W.J. Walker House
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/landmark548
- Repository
- Burnaby Heritage Planning
- Description
- The W.J. Walker House is a rustic cottage at the eastern end of Deer Lake and is now located within Deer Lake Park. It is a one-and-a-half-storey wood-frame shingle-clad vernacular structure.
- Associated Dates
- 1907
- Formal Recognition
- Heritage Designation, Community Heritage Register
- Other Names
- William & Olive Walker Residence
- Street View URL
- Google Maps Street View
- Repository
- Burnaby Heritage Planning
- Other Names
- William & Olive Walker Residence
- Geographic Access
- Sperling Avenue
- Associated Dates
- 1907
- Formal Recognition
- Heritage Designation, Community Heritage Register
- Enactment Type
- Bylaw No. 11593
- Enactment Date
- 15/09/2003
- Description
- The W.J. Walker House is a rustic cottage at the eastern end of Deer Lake and is now located within Deer Lake Park. It is a one-and-a-half-storey wood-frame shingle-clad vernacular structure.
- Heritage Value
- The W.J. Walker House is important as it references the economic activities in the Deer Lake area prior to the development of grand mansions in Deer Lake Park. It is typical of the cottages built by workers in the market gardening and lumber-milling industries that operated around the lake primarily from 1904-1925. This is the only cottage on the shores of Deer Lake remaining from the era when these industries were the focus of the area's development. The house demonstrates the aesthetic values of Olive Walker and her husband William J. Walker, a ‘rancher’ (market gardener, poultry farmer) who built the house as a retirement home, in the quality of its construction and interior finishing. The Craftsman styling of the house was a popular design vocabulary of the time and reflected the modern taste and values of the owner. The construction of the house also illustrates the use of locally milled lumber. The extant cold safe at the side of house is indicative of food storage methods in the early twentieth century and provides insight to the everyday domestic lives of people at this time.
- Defining Elements
- Key elements that define the heritage character of the W.J. Walker House include its: - location close to the lake and the site of the Deer Lake Lumber Company where the wood for construction of the house was milled - Craftsman style characteristics such as the house's orientation (front gable facing the street) and the combination of gable and double-pitched shed roofs - front entrance with its gabled porch supported by distinctive oversized diagonal brackets, and substantial front door of Douglas fir decorated with hand forged iron plates - cedar shingle siding - multiple-assembly wooden-sash casement windows with transoms - projecting cold safe - interior finishing that dates to the original construction of the house, such as the diagonally laid tongue-and-groove Douglas fir ceilings, wood panelled walls, and Clayburn brick fireplace
- Historic Neighbourhood
- Burnaby Lake (Historic Neighbourhood)
- Planning Study Area
- Morley-Buckingham Area
- Function
- Primary Current--Single Dwelling
- Primary Historic--Single Dwelling
- Community
- Burnaby
- Cadastral Identifier
- P.I.D. No. 017-105-773 Legal Description: Parcel 'A' (Reference Plan 3703), District Lot 85, Group 1, Except: Firstly: Parcel 'One' (Explanatory Plan 11350) Secondly: Parcel 2 (Reference Plan 35549) Group 1, New Westminster District.
- Boundaries
- The W.J. Walker House is comprised of a single municipally-owned property located at 5255 Sperling Avenue, Burnaby.
- Area
- 2,005.02
- Contributing Resource
- Building
- Landscape Feature
- Ownership
- Public (local)
- Documentation
- Heritage Site Files: PC77000 20. City of Burnaby Planning and Building Department, 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby, B.C., V5G 1M2
- Street Address
- 5255 Sperling Avenue
- Street View URL
- Google Maps Street View