Description of Historic Place

The Thomas L. Lawrence House is a one-and-one-half storey, stucco-clad, wood-frame residence with Period Revival detailing that provides an overall Storybook Cottage appearance. Set back on a sloped corner lot on the east side of 182 Street, it is located within a cluster of interwar suburban houses of a similar quality, age and scale in an area to the east of Cloverdale's town centre.

Heritage Value

The Thomas L. Lawrence House is valued as part of an enclave of suburban homes, built during the 1920s and 1930s in east Cloverdale. A number of the town's more prominent citizens relocated to this street, drawn to its semi-rural estate character. The development of a high quality subdivision, with many of the homes built during the time of the Great Depression, was an indication that the drop in the cost of labour and material after 1929 was a boon for those with financial resources.

Built circa 1930, the Thomas L. Lawrence House is valued as a good example of a picturesque, Period Revival cottage. The Storybook Cottage character of this house is exhibited primarily by its modest scale, stucco cladding and steeply pitched, irregular roofline, which consists of multiple, mixed height gables with rolled edges. The original roof covering was a steam-bent cedar shingle roof, reminiscent of the thatched roofs of rural English dwellings. It was built by local contractor Percy Jones, who built many homes in Cloverdale in the 1920s and 1930s.

Also of note is the association with Thomas L. Lawrence, a local poultry farmer, who owned the house until 1941.

Source: Heritage Planning Files, City of Surrey

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Thomas L. Lawrence House include its:
- location amidst a grouping of high quality suburban houses of a similar age, scale and character
- form, scale and massing as expressed by its one-and-one-half storey height and regular, rectangular plan
- wood-frame construction with roughcast stucco cladding
- Period Revival features such as its steeply-pitched side-gabled roof with front-gabled projections, rolled eaves and round-arched porch opening
- additional exterior features such as its front shed-roofed dormer, and central front entrance porch with poured concrete steps with splayed cheeks
- regular fenestration with single, double and triple-assembly three-pane wooden-sash casement windows, and corner curved glass block wall
- mature landscape elements and garden setting on a west-facing slope