Description of Historic Place

The MacDonald and Betterton Residence is a modest, one-storey Arts and Crafts bungalow with a hipped roof and projecting front verandah with closed balustrades. It is located beside a ravine on the west side of Second Avenue in Ioco, an early Imperial Oil Company town in Port Moody, British Columbia. The MacDonald and Betterton Residence is listed as a heritage site within the Ioco Heritage Conservation Area.

Heritage Value

The MacDonald and Betterton Residence, built in 1921, is valued as a reflection of the early development of the Ioco townsite, a company town developed by Imperial Oil near its refinery on the north shore of Burrard Inlet. The site was selected in 1914 and subdivided in 1921. Forty new workers' houses were designed by prominent local architects Blackadder and MacKay and built by the Dominion Construction Company of Vancouver. Fifteen additional houses, originally situated on the Ioco grounds, were also moved to the townsite, creating an instant community. The houses were situated strategically according to rank, with lower paid workers assigned to the western side of the townsite. The town also included a community hall, two grocery stores, a restaurant, a meat market, churches and a school. The surviving residences represent the birth of Ioco as a community and company town.

The MacDonald and Betterton Residence is also valued for its association with its first owners, Donald G. MacDonald, an oil worker for Imperial Oil, and Ida May Betterton (nee MacDonald). At the age of 22, Ida May had married Cherrill Roach Betterton, who was killed in overseas service during the First World War. In 1923, the residence was sold to William Benjamin Holgate Jr. Holgate worked as a machinist at Imperial Oil, then later became a police officer.

The MacDonald and Betterton Residence is further valued for its modest Arts and Crafts detailing, including the low-pitched hipped roof, with projections to the south and east sides. The efficient, rational floor plan reflected the reality that most families, especially after the end of the First World War, could no longer afford domestic help. Landscape features including mature trees, a stone wall and a ravine contribute to the setting of the MacDonald and Betterton Residence.

Source: City of Port Moody Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the MacDonald and Betterton Residence include its:
- location on a sloping site, on the west side of Second Avenue, on a lot backing onto a ravine, within the historic company town of Ioco, amongst other houses of similar form and scale, with views of Burrard Inlet
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its one-storey plus basement height, and hipped roof with hipped roof projections to the south and east sides
- wood-frame construction with cedar shingle siding
- Arts and Crafts details such as open soffits with exposed rafters, and partial-width verandah with hipped roof, square columns and closed balustrades
- additional exterior details such as an external red-brick chimney
- variety of windows including three-over-two double-hung wooden sash casement windows in double and triple-assembly, now boarded over
- mature informal landscaping including deciduous and coniferous trees and stone wall, with a ravine to the rear