Description of Historic Place

The McFarlane Residence is a modest one-and-one-half-storey plus basement Arts and Crafts house, located on the east side of Third Avenue in Ioco, an early Imperial Oil Company town in Port Moody. The house is similar in design to others in the townsite and features a low-pitched, side gabled roof, shingle siding, a modest entry porch and a shed-roofed dormer. The McFarlane Residence is scheduled as a heritage site within the Ioco Heritage Conservation Area.

Heritage Value

Built in 1922, and contemporaneous with other houses in the Ioco area, the McFarlane Residence 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.

Also significant is the association with the first owner, Wesley McFarlane, a pumpman and engineer with the Imperial Oil refinery. McFarlane purchased this house from Imperial Oil in 1922. The house is also valued as a modest example of Arts and Crafts architecture. The simple detailing includes a low-pitched side-gabled roof, a projecting square bay with windows on the south side, a simple projecting front porch and shingle siding.

Source: City of Port Moody Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the McFarlane Residence include its:
- location on the east side of Third Avenue, close to the road 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-and-one-half-storey plus basement height, side-gabled roof, rectangular plan, modest projecting entry porch and shed-roofed front dormer
- wood-frame construction, with cedar shingle siding, bellcast at the watertable and the foundation
- Arts and Crafts details such as open soffits with exposed rafters and purlins, and projecting square bay at side
- additional features such as an internal red-brick chimney
- variety of windows including six-over-one double-hung wooden sash casement windows in single and double assembly, now boarded over