Description du lieu patrimonial

Westham, located on St. Patrick Street in New Westminster, is a one-and-one-half storey front-gabled wood-frame house located in the Queen’s Park neighbhourhood. The house is set close to the street, and features detailing typical to the Edwardian era, such as a variety of siding types, and an inset partial-width front verandah balanced by a projecting bay window.

Valeur patrimoniale

Built in 1908, Westham is significant as a fine representation of the booming economy in New Westminster in the early 1900s and for its prominent location in the affluent Queen’s Park neighbourhood. Its refined Edwardian-era architecture demonstrates the trend towards symmetry and balance, with references to the popular Classical Revival influence.

Quality is displayed in the finishes and materials, and the refined design and detailing demonstrates the social, cultural, and aesthetic values embraced by New Westminster society of the early twentieth century, including an appreciation of architectural elegance and grand interior spaces. Originally located at 433 Carnarvon Street, this house was built for Captain Wilfred Philpott (1866-1945) and Margaret Jane Philpott (née Savage, 1883-1933). Wilfred Philpott, with his ancestral roots in Nova Scotia, was a former Master Mariner. He also owned the Royal City Ice Works, which he operated from a ice house at the rear of the original property. At the time of the house’s construction, Wilfred worked as a wharfinger with the Dominion Public Works Wharf. The Philpotts named this house Westham after a village in Essex, and lived in the house for the remainder of their lives. When the house was moved in 1990, the original playhouse was also dismantled and moved to its current location, and restored by the New Westminster Preservation Society.

Westham is also significant for its association with the Edwardian-era development of the Queen’s Park neighbourhood, the most affluent and desirable residential area of New Westminster. The historic character of Queen’s Park is based on its consistent streetscapes of fine restored homes, augmented by mature landscaping.

Source: City of New Westminster Planning Department

Éléments caractéristiques

Key elements that define the heritage character of Westham include its:
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by its one-and-one-half-storey height, inset partial-width front verandah balanced by a projecting bay window, closed verandah balustrades, multi-pitched rooflines including a prominent front gable with bellcast hipped return, and symmetrical hipped dormers
- wood-frame construction, as expressed by its narrow lapped siding at the lower level, butted siding above in the front gable and dormers, shingles in the upper gable, and cedar shingle roofing
- features typical of the Edwardian era, such as lathe-turned columns with carved Ionic capitals, panelled front door with glazed inset, contrasting textures of wall materials, and decorative mouldings
- windows, including double-hung one-over-one wooden-sash windows, and a lunette window at the gable peak
- internal red-brick chimney
- original playhouse in the back yard