Description of Historic Place

The Griffin Residence is a one-and-one-half storey front-gabled Arts and Crafts bungalow. This house features a full-width open front verandah with a hipped roof and a shed-roofed dormer. It is situated on the north side of Henry Street in Port Moody, British Columbia.

Heritage Value

The Griffin Residence is significant for its location within the Moody Centre residential area, and for its association with the economic development and outward expansion of the city that occurred as prosperity returned after the end of the First World War. This house stands at the edge of the buildable slope directly south of the downtown area, an indication of the original edge of the city's expansion to the south. The city's growth was naturally constrained by water and steeply-sloping topography; the residential area, adjacent to the downtown area, expanded up the Chines (steep-sided valleys) as far as houses could easily be constructed. The houses at the top of the Chines illustrate the city's original limit of expansion.

Constructed in 1923, the Griffin Residence is also significant for its modest architectural expression, featuring Arts and Crafts-inspired detail applied to a vernacular cottage form. It reflects the type of residence typically built for Port Moody's working class in the 1920s. The cedar shingle cladding is an indication of the house's mill town origins. The first owner, Emily Hilda Griffin, was a housewife originally from Scotland; she was married to Thomas Edward Griffin.

Source: City of Port Moody Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Griffin Residence include its:
- location on Henry Street, set amongst houses of similar age, style and scale
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its one and one-half storey height, front-gabled roof with shed dormer; projecting square bay on east elevation; and hipped roof above full-width open verandah
- wood frame construction
- external red-brick chimney with chimney pots
- windows such as three-over-one casement windows in double assembly and one-over-one wooden sash windows
- associated landscape features such as mature coniferous trees