Ernest & Katherine Hermon Residence

Heritage Value: Mr. Ernest Bolton Hermon, of the prominent engineering firm Hermon & Burwell, built this residence, and he and his wife, Katherine, lived here until 1935. The British Columbian described this home as “…a splendid mansion …which cost in the neighbourhood of $15,000.” Hermon was born into a Dutch family in Ontario in 1863, and moved to British Columbia in 1886. This is one of only three examples of the work of Samuel Maclure in Burnaby and is an outstanding example of his firm’s typical British Arts and Crafts style designs. Samuel Maclure (1860-1929) was known for his British Arts and Crafts style with meticulous attention paid to functional and beautiful interiors that utilized native wood combined with luxurious imported fittings. He was a leading exponent of the Art and Crafts design movement, and established a sophisticated local variation of residential architecture. Maclure’s Vancouver office, in association with his partner Cecil Croker Fox (1879-1916), received some sixty residential commissions between 1909-1915 as a result of the booming local economy and subsequent development of new residential districts. This partnership lasted until when Fox was killed overseas in active service during the First World War.The house has received some alterations, including stucco and brick being added to the lower floor, but it has retained its original form and massing including its symmetrical design, hipped roof and second floor half timbering.

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