A New Westminster couple considered to be “old house whisperers” have been acknowledged for four decades of heritage achievements.
For the past 40 years, Kathleen and Eric Langstroth have undertaken work to preserve heritage houses in New West and volunteered with community groups to keep heritage issues front and centre. Those efforts were noticed by Heritage BC, which recently presented the couple with an Outstanding Award for Distinguished Service in recognition of a lifetime of heritage achievements.
“We were very honoured and very surprised,” Kathleen Langstroth said in an interview with the Record. “I don’t know that we were worthy of it. We didn’t do anything special; we were just doing what we like to do.”
Fittingly, the pair met at an old house in New West back in the early 1980s when Kathleen was helping friends remove wallpaper, and Eric came by for dinner.
They married in 1987, which was the same year they embarked on their first restoration of a heritage house. Kathleen and some family members had bought an old house on Ninth Street in the Brow of the Hill in 1984 with the intention of flipping it.
“We were going to gussy it up a bit so that we could sell it. My husband and I, and my mom and dad and my two sisters, were in there doing some stuff to it, and Eric turned to everybody and said ‘I really like this house. I think we should buy it.’ I went, ‘Oh great. Just what I need.’ So that was the start of it. Instead of tarting it up a bit, we gutted it and took it right down to its studs and did the plumbing and the wiring and the insulation. Stripped all the doors. I stripped every piece of molding.”
At that time, folks were beginning to buy old houses in the Brow of the Hill, Queen’s Park and Sapperton neighbourhoods, which were affordable at that time, and renovate them, Langstroth said.
“You buy the ugly duckling and you turn it into the swan,” she said. “You could buy the houses and you could live in them and renovate them as you went, and restore them. At that time, most people were restoring them and bringing them back to what they were like.”
The couple worked on the 1901 Victorian house at 233 Ninth St. until 1993, when Langstroth’s sister suggested they look at a 1912 Arts and Craft-style home that was for sale on Seventh Avenue.
“I went through it and I absolutely loved it,” she recalled. “Most of the woodwork hadn’t been touched, although it had been greatly renovated in the ‘70s. I looked at it, Eric looked at it and we went, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
Soon, the couple was renovating and raising their son in their new home in Glenbrook North. They remained there until 2014, when, once again, they heard about an open house – at Eric’s dream house.
“It’s like 130 steps from my sister’s house. Eric has always said, ‘If that house ever comes for sale, I want to buy it.’ I would think, ‘Please never come for sale, never come for sale,’” Langstroth laughed. “It came on the market. Eric went and looked at it, called me and said, ‘I love the house, we have to buy it.’”
Soon after, they made the move to their current home, a 1911 Edwardian house on Third Avenue that features more than 20 stained glass windows and has Japanese architectural influences. (Following the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair, which featured a large Japanese pavilion, Japanese influences became quite popular in architecture, art and furnishings.)
“It’s a pretty unique house for New Westminster,” Langstroth said. “I think because of the Anglo-Japanese influence and the architectural style of the house.”
While the Queen’s Park home hasn’t required as much work as their previous homes, the couple has undertaken a fair number of projects through the years.
“It’s always been fun,” Langstroth said. “We have always worked on them together. Eric is sort of more on the construction end of stuff and I am more of the design and finishing touches.”
The couple shares a love of preserving homes that are reflective of the times in which they were constructed.
“The houses are really sturdy houses. You just think, hopefully it will be there for another 100 years,” Langstroth said. “As Eric says, you don’t do it for the glory, you just do it for the love of the house, the love of restoration.”
Efforts recognized
The BC Heritage Awards celebrate outstanding achievements and best practices that have impacted and strengthened all forms of heritage as a valued cultural resource in communities throughout British Columbia. The awards recognize the achievements of individuals, organizations, groups, businesses, and local and regional governments in communities across B.C.
Local heritage buffs were thrilled to send letters of support to Heritage BC as part of the Langstroth’s nomination. Many credit their efforts with saving old houses from the wrecking ball and with helping to keep the New Westminster Heritage Homes Tour going for 40 years.
“Eric and Kathleen are among the few brave heritage preservationists who can point to the personal restoration of three heritage homes in three different neighbourhoods of our city: Brow of the Hill, Glenbrook and Queen’s Park,” wrote Jim Wolf, historian and author of Royal City: A Photographic History of New Westminster, 1858 – 1960. “In each instance they were the perfect match to preserve homes that may not have been saved without their ownership. Their restoration of the Stead House, a rare Queen Anne in the Brow of the Hill neighbourhood, resulted in an Outstanding Achievement Award from Heritage BC.”
Steve North, president of the New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society, admires the couple’s dedication to restoration of heritage homes.
“I've restored one house while in the Queen’s Park area; I cannot imagine doing three,” he said. “Their attention to detail is fabulous, with Eric being the ‘king of old light fixtures’ and Kathleen adding her ability to decorate with period accuracy.”
Wolf said the couple has “demonstrated an unwavering commitment” to the city’s heritage and has played a key role in developing New Westminster’s reputation as a place of active community heritage conservation that’s admired around the province.
“Kathleen has always been ready to serve on boards, committees and volunteer efforts,” he noted. “Over the years she built significant bridges between heritage advocates and New Westminster’s civic politicians. Born and raised in New Westminster, Kathleen instinctively knew how to get from ‘no’ to ‘yes’ with practically anyone. Her efforts culminated in the designation of the Queen’s Park neighbourhood as a heritage conservation district.”
Gail North, president of the Queen’s Park Residents’ Association, said Kathleen has been “relentless” when advocating for heritage issues and “led the charge” for the creation of the Queen’s Park heritage conservation area.
Maureen Arvanitidis, past-president of the New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society, said the city and people who love heritage buildings in New Westminster owe a debt of gratitude to Eric and Kathleen.
“They led by doing and by example.”
Follow Theresa McManus on Twitter @TheresaMcManus
Email [email protected]
