Description of Historic Place

The Sherman Residence is a one and one-half storey plus basement wood-frame, vernacular late Victorian residence located at the corner of Savoy and Church Streets in a low-density residential neighbourhood, with a sympathetic garage and shed on the property. The house has an unusual square bay projection set diagonally on the corner of the facade. This house anchors the west end of the Savoy Street grouping of historic buildings in the residential Port Guichon neighbourhood.

Heritage Value

Built in 1894, the Sherman Residence is valued as a good example of a small, simple late Victorian vernacular cottage that retains much of its original simple form and character. Typical of the working class houses constructed in the Port Guichon area during the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Sherman Residence illustrates early residential development near the Fraser River waterfront that was driven by the cannery and fishing industries and is representative of Delta's resource-based origins. This house was one of the earliest to be built in the Port Guichon settlement, which developed as a distinct neighbourhood to the west of Ladner village. Port Guichon provided workers' housing for the industries located here, near the terminus of a railway and a busy shipping wharf; over time the small fishing and farming village was transformed into a busy industrial hub. This house was built for Thompson Sherman and his wife, Hortensia Sherman.

Source: Delta Heritage Planning Files

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Sherman Residence include its:
- location on a corner lot within a low-density residential context in an area of houses of similar scale and style
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its one and one-half storey plus basement height and irregular, rectangular plan with central front entry, linear rear extension, projecting diagonal corner bay and other square projecting bays
- side-gabled roof with projecting eaves, bargeboards with moulding and frieze, and two interior brick chimneys
- wood-frame construction with wooden drop siding and cornerboards, vertical tongue-and-groove cladding above the windows in projecting corner bay, and moulded panels below
- asymmetrical fenestration, including an original double-hung 2-over-2 wooden sash window beside the entry
- additional exterior details such as its small open front entry porch and glazed and panelled wooden front door