One of New Westminster’s most lovingly restored Edwardian mansions is now on the market.
The home at 109 Third Ave., near the entrance to Queen’s Park, has been listed for sale for $3,295,000. The listing went up May 15, according to Zealty.ca.
The G.R. Speck home was designed by architect E.J. Boughen in 1911 for George R. Speck, who ran a bicycle and sporting goods emporium in downtown New Westminster.
The two-and-a-half-storey wood-frame house is a “beautifully proportioned and superb example” of an Arts & Crafts style home, as explained in a statement of heritage significance that was presented to city council at a public hearing in January.
“It represents what makes this neighbourhood special by being a custom-designed grand house in the Arts & Crafts style built in the pre-World War One era, as well as through its garden setting and generous side yards, mature trees and shrubs and historic concrete perimeter wall,” the statement notes.
In layperson’s terms? It’s a huge and beautiful home, featuring 4,400 square feet of living space over four levels — with five bedrooms and four bathrooms (two full and two half).
The home features a full-width covered front veranda on the main level and a “sleeping porch” with a curved wall on the second level.
Most notable about the house are stunning period interior features, including 22 original leaded stained glass windows and original, never-been-painted millwork throughout — including white maple inlaid fir baseboards. Heritage home lovers will also enjoy the coffered ceilings, exquisite period lighting with art glass and a wood-burning fireplace, as outlined in the listing.
The interior of the home is so special, in fact, that the owners applied to the city for a heritage designation bylaw that would protect both the exterior of the house and some of its interior features — including the aforementioned stained glass windows, some wood mullioned windows in the bathroom and attic, and interior woodwork including architectural features, trim, doors and flooring in the front hall, front hall stairway, living room and dining room.
Outside, it also features a 1,000-square-foot outdoor patio and mature gardens.
For a full run-down of the home and all its features, as well as photographs, see its listing at Zealty.ca.
Who was George R. Speck? More about the home’s original owner
The first owners of the house were George Rodger Speck (1877-1948) and his wife Ethel (nee Hewitt) Speck (1879-1927), as the statement of heritage significance notes.
George moved to New Westminster in 1904 and ran a successful bicycle and sporting goods store on Columbia Street.
“The respect he received from the community is best represented by the E.O.S. Schofield biography: British Columbia: From the Earliest Times to the Present, Biographical Vol III, in which there is a write-up about Speck: ‘He is one of the leading concerns of the kind in New Westminster, which is steadily increasing in representative patronage. His success is the more creditable to him as it can be ascribed to no advantageous circumstances but is due only to his own indefatigable efforts,’” the report quotes.
The Specks lived in the house from 1911 until 1922, at which point they moved into another house a few streets over — a home also designed by Boughen.
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