Description du lieu patrimonial

The Louis Dahl House is a one-and-one-half storey, wood-frame Edwardian-era residence situated on the south side of River Road in the Royal Heights neighbourhood of Surrey, British Columbia. This house is characterized by its steeply-pitched gables, patterned shingles in the gable ends of the east and west façades, and wood-frame double-hung windows. An abundance of vegetation and mature trees conceals the house from the street.

Valeur patrimoniale

Built in 1906, the Louis Dahl House is significant for its association with its 1920s owners, the Dahl family. The Dahls settled in Surrey in 1921. Louis Dahl (1878-1967), originally from Scandinavia, was both a farmer and a fisherman by trade, skills that he passed on to his son. The Dahl men earned a living fishing, constructing boats, and doing other carpentry work. Dahl is credited with constructing and operating a net house for the Royal Heights community; around 1923 he also built the additions to the Dahl House that have since become part of the character of the house. As the Dahl family were fishermen, the Dahl House was perfectly situated with a view of the water and the boats, enabling Louis Dahl to keep an eye on the comings and goings of the Fraser River industrial area. Well-known in the Royal Heights community, the Dahl family was associated with this house for many decades.

The Louis Dahl House is also significant for its association with the Royal Heights neighbourhood and the Norwegian community that settled along River Road. Situated above the Fraser River industrial area and downstream from South Westminster, Royal Heights was among the first areas to be settled in Surrey. With the advent of the B.C. Electric Railway interurban line in 1910, transportation to the area was vastly improved. The neighbourhood is most strongly associated with the Annieville settlement; after the cannery was constructed there it attracted fishermen and families from all over the world. A number of Norwegian families settled in the area, many of them, like the Dahl family, along River Road.

Source: City of Surrey, Planning Files

Éléments caractéristiques

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Louis Dahl House include its:
- residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its one-and-one-half storey height, T-shaped plan, multiple steeply-pitched gables and front-gabled front entry porch with pediment
- construction materials such as the wood frame, wooden drop siding with patterned shingles in the gable ends of the southwest and northeast façades, cornerboards, and closed wooden soffits
- Edwardian-era details such as steeply-pitched multiple gables, red brick internal chimney with concrete chimney pot, pointed bargeboards, front porch with square columns, front-facing staircase, open balustrade, and cornerboards
- windows, including multi-paned casement windows in the gable end of the south-west façade, and one-over-one and two-over-two double-hung wooden-sash windows