Description of Historic Place

The Picnic Shelter is the cross-gabled single storey building to the west of Highway 99 and approximately 250 meters northwest of the Peace Arch in the broad grassed area of the West Lawn of Peace Arch Provincial Park in Surrey, British Columbia.

Heritage Value

The Picnic Shelter and its associated landscape is significant for its cultural and aesthetic values. It is particularly important for embodying and promoting Peace Arch Park's social values of celebrating the concord between the people of the United States and Canada.

The Picnic Shelter is culturally significant for having been conceived as a key component of the park, sited and planned for family picnicking in a spot with good views across the lawn to the Peace Arch and the ocean.

Fronting squarely onto the highway which ties the park together end to end, and tied visually to the highway with traditional formal planting beds, the building is formally linked to the rest of the park, which spans the border between the two countries, and to the Peace Arch itself. Set well back from the highway amidst a broad expanse of lawn, the building achieves a necessary peacefulness that is conducive to its use for picnicking.

The building is also valued for its aesthetics, which refer to traditional park structures built in the early decades of the 20th century in the Lower Mainland, and which are influenced by an English garden pavilion tradition. The human scale and the rustic materials and detailing of the Picnic Shelter contrast appealingly with the formal aesthetic of the Peace Arch, conveying different national cultures that nevertheless share a desire to coexist peacefully.

Source: Ministry of Environment, BC Parks

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of Peace Arch Picnic Shelter include its:

Site:
-location within a cluster of buildings and structures: picnic shelter and washroom buildings, picnic tables, fountain
-setting amidst an open lawn
-orientation of the building to face Highway 99
-formal planting bed axially located between the shelter front doors and Highway 99

Building:
-simple cross-gabled form
-board-and-batten cladding on upper wall areas
-stucco-rendered lower wall
-wood windows and doors
-generous covered terrace areas defined by rustic wood square pillars
-square pillars with rustic capital blocks
-stone fireplace chimney
-wood-grill vent in roof over covered terrace