An 1899 mansion originally built for one of New Westminster’s prominent early citizens is waiting for its new owner.
Thrushvale, at 431 Queens Ave. overlooking Tipperary Park, was the home of Major John Peck. The three-storey home, built in a transitional Queen Anne/Classical Revival style, is on the market for just shy of $2.5 million.
The $2,495,000 price tag will get you a great deal of house, with more than 4,000 square feet of living space spread out over three storeys and a basement.
Should you move in, you’d be living in the style you might expect from the home a wealthy colonial businessman and public servant — with an interior featuring the kind of wooden floors and panelling, detailed millwork and etched glass of which late-Victorian dreams are made. The main floor features a pair of living areas, including the home’s original parlour, and a couple of dining areas along with a renovated gourmet kitchen.
The second floor brings you two bedrooms, two bathrooms and an office, while the third offers two bedrooms — one of which boasts a skylight that was formerly a widow’s walk, where one could have stood and looked out over the Fraser River and its ships.
Major John Peck was a prominent force in New Westminster business, B.C. government
Peck having been a prominent citizen, it’s possible to glean some insight into his life from historic newspaper accounts, as well as information from the New Westminster Archives that was compiled for previous Heritage Home Tours in New Westminster.
An Englishman born, Peck came to Canada in the 1880s but returned home to study at London University, where he graduated with honours in engineering, chemistry, physics and electricity. He met and married Agnes Bacon, and the couple immigrated to New Westminster in 1890.
Peck became a partner in establishing the Vulcan Iron Works, which burned in New Westminster’s Great Fire of 1898. After the fire, Peck became chief inspector of boilers and machinery for the British Columbia provincial government; following the appointment, newspaper accounts tell of the “up-to-date residence” built for the Pecks in Queen’s Park.
Agnes’ life in Thrushvale was not fated to be a long one; newspaper accounts report that she died in December of 1909 at the age of 44, after an illness of several weeks. Her funeral took place from the family home.
She left behind her husband and their two children, Arthur and Ethel, then aged 11 and seven.
Peck himself, however, continued to live in New Westminster — and, it seems, married again some time later.
Four years later, the society pages were providing details about the post-nuptial reception hosted by his wife at their home:
“The hostess wore a frock of pink charmeuse with white fur and blue velvet,” The Province reported in December 1914.
In keeping with the style of the times, the wife in question is identified only as “Mrs. John Peck” (though reviewing Peck’s later funeral record reports his wife at the time of his death as Minnie Barton Taylor).
Mrs. John Peck appears to have become a favourite in colonial society, as she frequently appeared in the society pages for hosting musicales, teas and other events on behalf of the Colonel Moody chapter of the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire and the Women’s Educational Club.
Peck daughters in May Queen Suite, on Broadway in Ziegfeld Follies
The next generation of Pecks also made the headlines.
Ethel Peck was a maid of honour in the New Westminster May Queen Suite in 1917. Mollie Peck became a dancer, heading off to study in Los Angeles under Theodore Kosloff in his Imperial Russian School of Ballet at the age of 16. Mollie was later discovered by no less a personage than Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. and hit the limelight with the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway in 1927; her return visits home to Thrushvale would merit mentions in the society columns.
Peck, meanwhile, continued his life of public service, serving on both school board and city council and becoming a founding executive member of the local Civic Improvement League. He retired in 1928 and died at the age of 91 in 1952.
Upon his retirement in 1928, The Province newspaper reported that Peck gave an emotional speech at a farewell banquet, in which he made a plea for the better development of provincial resources that “British Columbia may be a province of happy homes.”
He might, one suspects, be pleased to see his own happy home enjoyed by a family that could once again fill it with music and entertaining.
Thrushvale on the market since November 2022
Which brings us back to the For Sale sign now at Thrushvale (where the home’s name still appears above the front door).
The home was listed Nov. 9, 2022, according to Zealty.ca, and its asking price has remained consistent since.
Should you have the necessary $12,000 a month or so to make the mortgage payment (after your $500,000 down payment), Thrushvale — with all the stories contained in its walls — awaits.
You can find out more at its listing at Engels & Völkers Vancouver.
Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
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