Description of Historic Place

The Olaf Stokkeland Residence is a one-and-one-half storey, wood-frame house, set on the rise of a hill, facing River Road. It is located in the historic settlement of Annieville, with commanding views to the west over the Fraser River. The house is distinctive for its Arts and Crafts architecture, with gabled wall dormers, triangular eave brackets, and a gabled entry porch with twinned tapered columns.

Heritage Value

The Olaf Stokkeland Residence dates from 1913, and represents a period when Delta was developing rapidly due to booming agricultural, canning and fishing industries. Salmon fishing and processing were integral to Delta's early development. The earliest salmon canneries were built along North Delta's Fraser River waterfront, and thrived as an industry that provided work for thousands of unemployed immigrants after the completion of the railway and the subsidence of gold rush activities. Drawn to these booming industries, Scandinavian immigrants settled in the area surrounding the canneries, in communities that came to be known as Annieville and Sunbury. By the turn of the twentieth century, Delta was home to a leading salmon fishing community that was second only to Steveston for local canning capacity.

This residence is further valued for its ties to its original owner, Olaf Pedersen Stokkeland (1883-1957). Norwegian-born Stokkeland immigrated in 1907 to British Columbia, where he took up employment as a shipwright. The following year, 1908, he married Serianna Larsen (1883-1951) in New Westminster. The Stokkelands lived in this house for the remainder of their lives.

With its wood-frame construction and handsome Arts and Crafts detailing, the Olaf Stokkeland Residence is also significant for its architecture, which reflects the style of other contemporaneous houses in the area. Notable features include its asymmetrical and richly articulated facades, triangular eave brackets, and front-gabled entry porch.

Source: Corporation of Delta Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Olaf Stokkeland Residence include its:
- siting on a sloping lot in the historic community of Annieville, in association with houses of similar age and style, with views to the west over the Fraser River
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by its one-and-one-half storey height with full basement, front-gabled roof, gabled wall dormers and front-gabled porch entrance supported by twinned tapered columns
- wood-frame construction with horizontal lapped wooden siding
- Arts and Crafts detailing, such as open soffits with exposed rafter tails, triangular eave brackets and pointed bargeboards
- additional features, such as an internal red-brick chimney
- windows such as one-over-one double-hung wooden-sash windows and multi-paned wooden-sash casement windows
- jerkin-headed garage situated in front of the house adjacent to the street
- associated landscape features, such as mature coniferous and deciduous trees