Description of Historic Place

Carlton Court is a solid, three-storey, landmark apartment building covering the end of a city block on Third Avenue in New Westminster.

Heritage Value

Constructed in 1925, the stucco-clad Carlton Court is significant for its age, for its apartment form, and as a good example of the Mission Revival style, seen primarily in the decorative pediments and rear courtyard.

The 26-unit building is important as an early apartment developed in the primarily single-family residential Queen’s Park neighbourhood, reflecting an overall pattern of a mix of high-end housing and more modest home development, catering to the middle class. It is also a reflection of the process of replacement of older homes common in the neighbourhood. Garages constructed behind the building reflect the wider automobile ownership, due to the revitalized economy at the time of its construction.

The building is significant for its architect, Ralph Berrill, a west coast architect, who was also know as one of the first bureaucrats to work in the new federal housing programs that started in the 1930s. Berrill designed several homes on Second Street, as well as a variety of commercial and residential structures built in various Period Revival styles.

Carlton Court is significant for its historical and continued use as rental accommodation in Queen’s Park. Tenant records indicate few vacancies over time, along with a mix of residents, male and female, professionals and non-professionals, an indication of the diversity of population in the Queen’s Park area, and the demand for rental accommodation.

The original lot on which Carlton Court stands is important historically as typical of very early large estate lot development in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood, the later subdivision of large lots into affordable buildings sites, and for its connection to original property owner William Clarkson, and later owner John Cunningham Brown, both well-known New Westminster residents.

Source: City of New Westminster Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of Carlton Court include its:

Siting, Context and Landscape
- location at the end of the block, facing south
- minimal setback from the sidewalk and street
- back lane behind the building, separating the apartment from the garage structure
- courtyard at the back of the building

Architectural Features
- rectangular massing and U-shaped plan, with an extra storey on the front structure
- massive walls with broad, unadorned surfaces
- flat roof with protruding cornice
- stucco cladding
- double-hung windows, regularly placed on most facades, irregularly placed in the rear
- metal fire escape