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Online Heritage Inventory

Steveston Telephone Exchange

General Information
Thumbnail photograph of Steveston Telephone Exchange
Click to see full image
Type of Resource: Building
Common Name: Bill Rigby Memorial Society Building
Address: 12004 No 1 Road
Neighbourhood (Planning Area Name): Steveston
Construction Date: circa 1914
Current Owner: Private
Designated: Yes

Statement of Significance
Description of Site
This small, unobtrusive building is a simple, one-storey hipped roof structure with a corner porch. Due to the widening of No. 1 Road, the building now sits slightly below the road grade, with a small tree in front and shrubs to one side.

Statement of Values
The heritage value of the Telephone Exchange building lies in its historical use as the first telephone exchange and office for the Steveston area. The prominence of this building in its original location at one of Steveston’s main intersections speaks to the importance of the telephone service when it arrived in here in 1914.
Aesthetically, the structure has value as a pre-World War I utilitarian communications building with design features more residential than commercial.

Character Defining Elements
Key elements that define the heritage character of the site include:
· Its location at a prominent intersection in Steveston reflecting its important historical use
· Design details of the structure including a corner porch with columns, hipped roof with a hipped gable, front dormer window and exposed rafter ends.

History
This small, unobtrusive building is a simple, one-storey hipped roof structure with a corner porch. Due to the widening of No. 1 Road, the building now sits slightly below the road grade, with a small tree in front and shrubs to one side.

Architectural Significance
Architectural Style
Edwardian

Building Type
Communication

Design Features
This small wooden structure has a low hipped roof covered with brown asphalt shingles, and a small hipped dormer in the front centre of the roof. Notched rafter ends at both the main roof eaves and the dormer eaves introduce a craftsman element to the building’s design. The design of the dormer continues down to a large bay window on the front facade. The exterior is made of wooden clapboard siding and is currently painted white. The windows appear to be new within the original sashes (which are wooden and painted white). A covered, dormer porch marks the entrance, which is offset to one side. One square classical column supports the outer corner of the porch.

Landscape Significance
Landscape Element
Limited to a tree and some shrubs.

Integrity
Alterations
According to earlier research material, the interior was gutted in 1988. The windows on the main level appear to be non-original. A cursory look at the rest of the building highlights few alterations.

Original Location
Yes

Condition
The building looks to be in good condition on the exterior.

Lost
No

Documentation
Evaluated By
Julie MacDonald (Julie MacDonald Heritage Consulting)

Date
Tuesday, February 15, 2000

Documentation
“Heritage Inventory, Phase II” by Foundation Group Designs, May 1989. Inventory Sheets by Diana Bodnar (Foundation Group), January 1989.

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