Description du lieu patrimonial

The Peck House at 5041 St. Catherine's Street is a one-storey (with basement), hip roofed, wood-frame vernacular cottage located between 33rd Avenue and 35th Avenue in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood of Vancouver, B.C.

Valeur patrimoniale

The Peck House is valued for its historical association with the Edwardian-era expansion of South Vancouver, its association with its developer and subsequent resident families who all worked in local businesses, for its aesthetic as an early Vancouver house design, and scientifically as a structure that was constructed of local materials over 100 years ago.

Constructed in 1910/1911, the Peck House is valued for its historical association with the Edwardian-era construction and economic boom of the early 20th century (1899-1913), during which South Vancouver's rural character gave way to rapid residential development. Sparked by the extension of the local streetcar lines in the early 1900s, development in South Vancouver intensified and spread south toward the Fraser River. The subject house was built as part of this development wave, in the Kensington Place subdivision (1906) just east of Mountain View Cemetery and Fraser Street.

The Peck House holds historical value for its association with its first owner, building contractor William H. Peck who resided in the subject house between 1910/1911-1915, as well as with subsequent residents of the house - the Thurston family (resided 1921-1936) and the Georgas family (resided 1980-1996). William H. Peck built multiple houses in Vancouver, South Vancouver and Point Grey in the 1910s. Thomas Thurston, a sailmaker who worked at Edward Lipsett Ltd., his wife Helen and their five children lived at the subject house for 15 years. Nancy and Peter Georgas, who worked as a bus driver at Metro Transit and later became President at Compuplan Computer Systems Corp., lived at the subject house for 16 years.

The Peck House holds aesthetic value as an early 20th-century working-class Early Cottage, a popular house style at the time of modest scale and simple design. Its survival adjacent to another cottage of the same design and age at 5033 St. Catherine's St., illustrates the general streetscape character and scale in the Kensington neighbourhood and in other areas of South Vancouver in the first half of the 20th century.

Finally, this historic place holds scientific value for its traditional and environmentally conscious construction techniques, with its historic, locally-sourced, low energy-intensive materials - their quality, durability and repairability - and for the embodied energy (the total energy expended over the building's more than 110 years lifecycle) held in the building.

Éléments caractéristiques

The elements that define the heritage character of the Peck House are its:

- Original location on St. Catherine's Street in the former South Vancouver municipality
- Original siting on the lot
- Residential form, massing and setback with modest front yard
- One-storey (with basement), wood-frame structure
- Architectural elements associated with the early cottage style, including: Hip roof with deep overhang, hip roofed dormer and soffits, corner front porch with column, steps, and tong-and-groove soffits,canted bays at the east elevation (front façade) and south elevation
- Original window and front door openings
- Art glass windows on the north and south elevations
- Continuous residential use at this location since 1910/1911
- Adjacent relationship with the almost twin design at 5033 St. Catherine's Street