Telford Block

The Telford Block, built in 1913 for J.M. Telford by contractor N. Dalrymple, is important for its aesthetic and cultural values, and particularly for its historical value in illustrating the rebuilding of the city after the Great Fire of 1898.

The Telford Block is a good typical example of commercial building in the Edwardian era, combining ground floor commercial space with residential accommodation on two floors above. The Block’s planning (the architect is noted on the Building Permit application as Daniel McAuley) allowed for an efficient central stair access to the apartments between two commercial spaces. The restrained detailing, common for standard commercial buildings of the era, employs small flourishes for the ground floor entries and fenestration, on the main face of the building, and at the parapet, for an overall handsome effect. Its brick material is important and valued for being carefully detailed.

The Telford Block’s list of residents over the decades is a valuable cultural record of the New Westminster society over the early decades of the 20th Century, and a record of the co-resident mix of working class and middle class populations, including mostly workers (millworkers, machinists, plumbers, for example), service sector workers (confectioner, attendant at the Provincial Mental Hospital, for example) and white-collar workers (transit dispatcher, for example).

The building is a good for illustrating the effect of the Great Fire on the City. It spread no farther west than 10th Street. A look at the street section of the 1895 directory for New Westminster shows five addresses on the north side of Royal Avenue between Tenth Street and McInnes: 863 Royal Avenue was the home of labourer Thomas Price, 865 was a vacant shack, 869 Royal Avenue was the home of Royal City Planing Mills carpenter George N. Wolfe, 871 was a vacant house, and 873 another vacant house. It would seem that it took over 10 years for this particular part of the city to rebuild after the fire.