William Clarkson House
313 Fourth Street • Ornate Victorian • Built 1862 • Builder: William Clarkson
From One Grand Home to Two
In 1862—three years before Irving House was built—William Clarkson, an early settler and future mayor (1871-72) of New Westminster, constructed a large, ornate Victorian home at 317 Third Avenue. At the time, an 1864 review in The British Columbian praised it as “one of the handsomest residences yet erected.”
Over the years, the home housed various prominent residents, including John Cunningham Brown, a businessman and former mayor, who lived there in 1898—the year of the Great Fire.
By 1911, the Clarkson home underwent a dramatic transformation. The large house, originally able to accommodate a family and seven lodgers, was split into two separate homes. The two halves were turned back-to-back and repositioned to face different streets—now 313 Fourth Street and 314 Pine Street. Each was updated in the popular Edwardian style of the time.
"Another old landmark in the city, the house formerly occupied by Mr. J C Brown facing on Third Avenue on the double corner between Pine and Fourth Streets, is now being changed about. this was considered to be one of the finest houses in New Westminster thirty years ago...The old house has been divided into two parts -- one half being placed fronting on Pine street and the other half on Fourth Street, and it will be remodelled and improved."
-- from "Old Landmark's new positions", March 6, 1911, The British Columbian
Images L-R: William Clarkson House #1 (post 1911) at 313 Fourth Street; Original William Clarkson House (c. 1862) also at 313 Fourth Street; and William Clarkson House #2 at 314 Pine Street. All Photos from City of New Westminster photos 2009, from HistoricPlaces.ca
The subdivision likely happened to make way for a new right-of-way -- now Pine Street -- created for the B.C. Electric Railway, linking the property to the history of trams that once connected New Westminster with Vancouver and Chilliwack.
Though divided, the homes still reflect the elegance of the original design, with features like hipped roofs, wide verandahs, and classic wood siding. If it had remained intact, the original Clarkson house would be the oldest residential building in New Westminster -- a lasting testament to the city’s early architectural and civic history.
Source: Canada's Historic Places www.HistoricPlaces.ca