Description of Historic Place

The Deane Block is a two-storey commercial masonry building, located on a steeply-sloping corner lot on the north side of Columbia Street at Church Street in New Westminster's historic downtown core.

Heritage Value

The Deane Block is significant for its contribution to the consistent and distinctive built form of Columbia Street, much of which dates from 1898 and 1913, when New Westminster was the major centre of commerce and industry for the booming Fraser Valley area. Built in 1908-09 as a speculative property for Evans Brown Deane (1857-1950), a Vancouver real estate investor, by 1911 it had been sold to another owner. In addition to four ground floor retail spaces, for a few years the Deane Block housed the Westminster Club, a New Westminster private members club established in 1889 for the social needs of the business and political elite of the area.

Additionally, the Deane Block is valued for its association with its architect, Edwin George William Sait (1867-1949). By 1892, Sait had settled in New Westminster, where he was a long-term resident. He achieved early success following the Great Fire of 1898, but experienced a decline in his career following the collapse of the local economy in 1913.

Source: Heritage Planning Files, City of New Westminster

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Deane Block include its:
- location on a corner lot at Columbia and Church Streets, part of a grouping of late Victorian and Edwardian era commercial buildings in historic downtown New Westminster
- siting on the property lines, with no setbacks
- form, scale and massing as expressed by its two-storey plus lower level height, flat roof, chamfered corner and rectangular plan
- regular fenestration