Exterior of Grandview Heights Elementary School Annex, 2008
Photo: City of Surrey, 2008
- Built
- 1922
- Recognized
- 2000
- By
- Local government
The register’s text, word for word
Description
Grandview Heights Elementary School Annex is a small front-gabled, one-room rural schoolhouse with banked wooden windows located at the corner of 176 Street and 20 Avenue, in the Grandview Heights neighbourhood of Surrey. The Annex is situated behind the newer Grandview Heights Elementary School, with views over Semiahmoo Bay. Both schools were closed in 2006.
Heritage value
Grandview Heights Elementary School Annex is valued for its association with the growth of the Grandview Heights neighbourhood in the 1920s. Spurred by a revitalization in the logging and lumber industry and by the construction of the Pacific Highway, Grandview Heights experienced growth after the First World War, demonstrated in part through the opening of this school in 1922 in this prominent location on the hillside overlooking Semiahmoo Bay. Sited on land purchased by the Surrey School Board, the school housed students formerly required to travel to Hall’s Prairie School, several miles away.
Built through a community effort that involved multiple communities working together to reach a common goal, the Annex is also valued as a reminder of the spirit of volunteerism that was so important in young settlements. This was one of the last one-room school houses to operate in Surrey.
The Annex is further valued as a good example of traditional school architecture. The rectangular one-room school building is one storey in height, with a simple front-gabled roof and banked wooden frame six-over-six double-hung windows. Original wooden drop siding remains under later stucco siding. Apart from a later flat-roofed extension at the front of the school, the building remains largely in its original condition.
SourceCity of Surrey Planning Department
Character‑defining elements
Key elements that define the heritage character of the Grandview Heights Elementary School Annex include its:
- situation on the crest of a hill overlooking Semiahmoo Bay in the Grandview Heights neighbourhood
- location behind the newer Grandview Heights Elementary School at the corner of 176 Street and 20 Avenue
- institutional vernacular form, scale and massing, as expressed by its symmetrical one-storey height, with regular rectangular plan and front-gabled roof with bargeboards and exposed rafters
- wood-frame construction, including drop siding under later stucco siding and original cedar shingles covered by later duroid shigles
- windows, such as banked single assembly double-hung six-over-six wooden-frame windows with regular fenestration and single assembly triple-pane awning windows, all with simple wood trim
- exterior features, such as a four-panelled wooden door at the rear of the school with original shed-roof doorway and louvre at the front gable
- original interior features, such as window and door trim, and vertical siding on the walls
- associated landscape features, such as open field with mature deciduous and coniferous trees
End of the register’s text
Location
17561 20 Avenue, Surrey, British Columbia, V3S, Canada
49.03908° N, 122.73679° W
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From the Canadian Register of Historic Places, as last updated on December 12, 2025. The register’s text is shown word for word.