Dear Editor:
Re: Hopes for heritage demolished, The Record, June 14.
The destruction of the 1926 Edward Riddell house (J.B. Whitburn, architect) and the surrounding garden was a major loss to New Westminster heritage. Built in the quintessential English cottage style, the house was designed to evoke a picturesque village house surrounded by gardens of rosebushes, peonies, vines and other perennials.
Everywhere you looked, the house had interesting and unique features. The chimneys were curved and angled, the front porch curved from the side up to a Gothic-shaped front door with a hand-forged door knocker. The exterior lights were a combination of hand-forged iron with brass fittings and one of the lights had a wall bracket in the shape of a caravel ship that supported the light. The living room with beautiful leaded hollyhocks across the top of each of the six window panels looked out onto the gardens. The fireplace in the living room had matte finished Mayan-style tiles - probably by Rookwood Potteries. This style tile was made popular by Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, in the 1920s at the Ennis House in Los Angeles and was a precursor to Art Deco. It was very special to see the work of an architect who had one foot in the English country heritage vernacular and the other in the beginning of modernism. Whitburn's house was a piece of art, and we lost it. We let it slip between our fingers.
It is time to say "enough" to the destruction of our heritage properties and neighbourhoods. Two weeks ago, the Heritage Preservation Society had our annual Heritage Homes Tour and sold more than 1,000 tickets, 92 per cent of the people said in our survey that they "love old houses and want to see them saved."
People who came to the tour travelled from throughout the Lower Mainland, but the majority were people living in our city. I think it is accurate to say people in New Westminster value our heritage and do not want to see it destroyed. It is time to say to our city staff and council, we want you to not tell us what you cannot do but to look for solutions - to find ways to ensure this destruction stops and our neighbourhoods are protected - not only in Queen's Park but throughout the city.
If you are a concerned citizen, write a letter or email to our council - clerks@ newwestcity.ca - and let's find a solution to keep our heritage, before any more of it disappears.
Maureen Arvanitidis, president, Heritage Preservation Society of New Westminster
