Description of Historic Place

Set on a prominent corner lot at Fourth Street and Eighth Avenue in New Westminster’s Uptown neighbourhood, the Matthias Residence is a one-and-one-half storey, wood-frame Edwardian-era house. Notable features include a complex, multi-pitched roofline, a corner porch with lathe-turned balusters and tapered columns, and a stained glass window. This building is currently utilized as a daycare facility.

Heritage Value

Built 1911, this historic dwelling is valued as a representation of the type of modest housing built in the Uptown neighbourhood of New Westminster during the Edwardian-era boom.

Furthermore, the Matthias Residence is valued for its Edwardian-era architecture. A complex multi-pitched roofline characterizes this house, consisting of a hipped roof with front-gabled projection with closed cornice return, and a shed dormer on the east elevation. A corner porch with wooden balustrade and tapered piers denotes the entry to the house. Contrasting materials of vertical wooden siding near the roof and narrow wooden lapped siding give a distinct pattern to the exterior.

Source: City of New Westminster Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Matthias Residence include its:
- prominent corner location at Fourth Street and Eighth Avenue, in the Uptown neighbourhood in New Westminster
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by its one-and-one-half storey height, complex multi-pitched roofline with hipped roof, front-gabled projection with closed cornice return, shed dormer on east elevation, semi-octagonal bay on east elevation, and partial-width corner verandah
- wood-frame construction with narrow wooden lapped siding with cornerboards, and vertical tongue-and-groove wooden frieze
- Edwardian-era elements, such as the partial-width verandah with lathe-turned balusters, closed soffits, and tapered porch columns
- windows, such as one-over-one double-hung wooden-sash windows with horns, casement window with multi-paned transom above, wooden-sash windows at basement level, and a fixed stained-glass window in the entry hall
- original wooden front door with oval inset
- internal red-brick chimney