The Sandersons were pioneer settlers in the Central Park area, arriving in Burnaby in 1904. Thomas Sanderson (1878-1936) was born in Morningside, Scotland and immigrated to British Columbia in 1899. In Vancouver in 1903, he married Ellen Jane Garvin (1883-1965), a native of Sherbrooke, Quebec. Thomas was chief of the Accounting Department at Hastings Mill, and served as Reeve of Burnaby in 1919 and 1920. One of his sons, Thomas, was a long-time teacher in Burnaby. The Sandersons’ house was built in 1905 as a small Edwardian bungalow but was extensively remodelled in the 1920s and is a fine example of the Craftsman style and today remains in good condition. Typical of the Late Craftsman style, the house has a front gabled roof, triangular eave brackets, tapered window surrounds and a mix of textural finishes, including shingles and lapped siding.
On December 13, 1912, The British Columbian Weekly described the Vancouver Heights neighbourhood as follows: "The northern portion of the municipality in the vicinity of Boundary Road has during the past three years made tremendous strides towards settlement. At that time Mr. James Herd and Mr. Peters were the only residents of the district...Soon, however, the timber was removed, streets laid out and other conveniences such as water, light and transportation provided... The school population of the district has increased so rapidly that the school has been enlarged twice this year and is at the present time inadequate. About 200 children are attending now. There are three churches in the district and one mission...At present time there are two large blocks containing six stores..."
The West Central Valley Neighbourhood is home to the Bridge Business Park and is a primarily industrial neighbourhood. Similar to the adjacent Dawson-Delta Neighbourhood, West Central Valley offers businesses convenient access to major roads and highways.
The Westridge Neighbourhood is effectively separated into two areas by Inlet Drive. To the west of the highway lies a typical 1950s subdivision of single-family homes, while to the east is a newer (1970s) subdivision featuring larger lots and some low-rise units. In the 1980 Residential Neighbourhood Environment Study, Westridge was characterised as a stable community with little need for direct Municipal involvement in growth and development.
The convenient location of Willingdon Heights to the Trans Canada Highway, Lougheed Highway and Hastings Street has fostered its development as a primarily residential commuter neighbourhood. Characterised in the post-World War Two period by predominantly single-family developments, the neighbourhood has retained this identity despite some higher density apartment buildings now found there.
The Windsor Neighbourhood comprises a number of different districts with different characteristics. To the north, stretching to the border of the Deer Lake Park, is the primarily residential area that was developed after the building boom of the 1950s and now consists of a mix of single-family and multi-family housing. To the south, from Kingsway to the Skytrain line, an industrial area was maintained along with a significant commercial corridor along Kingsway. In recent years, the growth and development of this area has been guided by the Royal Oak Community Plan adopted by Council in 1999.
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.
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
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
Set far back from Sperling Avenue, Woodward Cottage is a one-storey, wood-frame house with a raised foundation and gabled roofline. It is located within a picturesque lakefront neighbourhood and is part of the Deer Lake Park Heritage Precinct.
Set far back from Sperling Avenue, Woodward Cottage is a one-storey, wood-frame house with a raised foundation and gabled roofline. It is located within a picturesque lakefront neighbourhood and is part of the Deer Lake Park Heritage Precinct.
Heritage Value
Woodward Cottage, built in 1904, is valued as the oldest house within the Deer Lake neighbourhood, whose construction marked the beginning of Deer Lake's transition from a rural farming community to a residential suburb. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Deer Lake was recognized for its tranquility and beautiful scenery, which, in turn, attracted New Westminster and Vancouver residents to relocate to the area and build family homes. The first owner, Maud Sarah Woodward (1865-1958), originally from England, was a pioneer nurse of Vancouver. In 1903, she purchased this property from her two close friends, Louis and Annie Hill, who were among Deer Lake's first residents. Maud and her sister, Harriet Julia Woodward (1879-1969), were prominent figures in the Deer Lake community and together they established the first post office in Burnaby, which operated out of this house. Due to the lack of any local facilities, in September 1904 Harriet Woodward established a private primary school here for the local children, which continued after 1908 as a kindergarten. The cottage was enlarged several times to accommodate the expanding post office until 1912, when the Woodwards began construction of a new, larger house.
Woodward Cottage is also valued for its origins as an innovative prefabricated structure. In 1904, the B.C. Mills Timber and Trading Company patented a modular system in response to unprecedented population growth in the western provinces. This system could be adapted to provide everything from modest one-room cottages to schools, churches and banks. Short mill ends of lumber and siding, which had previously been discarded, were assembled into three or four-foot wide wall panels that could be bolted together. The vertical joints between the panels were covered by narrow battens, which gave these buildings their distinct appearance. The wall panels for the house were assembled at the mill, prepainted and packaged with various other components and the necessary instructions to assemble the building, and shipped via railway to its waiting customer. Woodward Cottage is one of the earliest surviving examples of this ingenious prefabricated system. In the 1930s, the cottage was raised and turned to allow for a new foundation to be built. Despite later additions and alterations, the original cottage form is still recognizable. Woodward Cottage is currently owned by the City of Burnaby and is part of the Deer Lake Park Heritage Precinct, Burnaby's most significant collection of historic sites.
Defining Elements
Key elements that define the heritage character of Woodward Cottage include its:
- secluded lakefront site, set far back from Sperling Avenue, within the Deer Lake Park Heritage Precinct
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its one-storey height and gabled roofline
- original wood-frame construction and modular wall panels, extant under later stucco cladding
- internal red-brick chimney
- associated landscape features, including mature deciduous trees
Photograph of the First Division class for 1907 at West Burnaby School (later renamed Kingsway West School). There are two rows of students standing and one row of seated students. there is a male teacher standing on the left side of the group just beside a bicycle that is leaning against the build…
Handwritten in the photograph is "1st Div 1907 / West Burnaby School". The reverse side of the photograph is printed in a postcard format.
Scope and Content
Photograph of the First Division class for 1907 at West Burnaby School (later renamed Kingsway West School). There are two rows of students standing and one row of seated students. there is a male teacher standing on the left side of the group just beside a bicycle that is leaning against the building.
Photograph of a runner wearing a cow-spotted costume during a 24-hour relay race at Swangard Stadium. Other runners and participants with a banner are on the track behind the runner and many people are sitting in the stands in the background.
Photograph of a runner wearing a cow-spotted costume during a 24-hour relay race at Swangard Stadium. Other runners and participants with a banner are on the track behind the runner and many people are sitting in the stands in the background.
Photograph of Ray and Frances Fleming at the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. They each have floral corsages, Frances is holding a bouquet of flowers and there is a bunch of balloons behind them.
Photograph of Ray and Frances Fleming at the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. They each have floral corsages, Frances is holding a bouquet of flowers and there is a bunch of balloons behind them.
Photograph of Ray and Frances Fleming at the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. The smiling couple is standing next to a table with a cake on it.
Photograph of Ray and Frances Fleming at the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. The smiling couple is standing next to a table with a cake on it.
Photograph of Ray and Frances Fleming at the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. Both are seated while Frances' brother John Waplington, dressed in a captain's hat is standing in behind them.
Photograph of Ray and Frances Fleming at the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. Both are seated while Frances' brother John Waplington, dressed in a captain's hat is standing in behind them.
Photograph of the Fleming clan celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Ray and Frances Fleming with their children Edith (Edie) Ehlers (nee Fleming), John (Jack) Fleming and Maureen Clayton (nee Fleming).
Photograph of the Fleming clan celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Ray and Frances Fleming with their children Edith (Edie) Ehlers (nee Fleming), John (Jack) Fleming and Maureen Clayton (nee Fleming).
Photograph of Brian Waplington, Maureen Clayton (nee Fleming), cousin Ray Ferguson, Edith (Edie) Ehners (nee Fleming) and cousin Norm Ferguson at the 60th Anniversary celebration of Ray and Frances Fleming.
Photograph of Brian Waplington, Maureen Clayton (nee Fleming), cousin Ray Ferguson, Edith (Edie) Ehners (nee Fleming) and cousin Norm Ferguson at the 60th Anniversary celebration of Ray and Frances Fleming.
"100 Years of Gilmore School". Filmed by Yunuen Perez Vertti and made by the Heights Neighbourhood Association. The film includes interviews with former students and highlights their experiences through the Great Depression, the Second World War and the 1960s.
"100 Years of Gilmore School". Filmed by Yunuen Perez Vertti and made by the Heights Neighbourhood Association. The film includes interviews with former students and highlights their experiences through the Great Depression, the Second World War and the 1960s.
History
Yunuen Perez Vertti is a filmmaker and digital media artist originally from Mexico City. She has produced films for many public, private and non-profit organizations.