Imagine going back to your childhood home at the age of 90 – all the memories and emotions that would come flooding back.
That’s exactly what former Burnaby resident David Burnett experienced on Aug. 26, his birthday. His daughter Alaina surprised him with a visit to Wintemute House, one of the oldest surviving heritage homes in the city, and invited the NOW along for a tour.
Burnett’s parents owned the Victorian-era country farmhouse from 1929 to the late ’70s. The now-retired civil engineer and B.C. land surveyor was only three years old when his family moved in. The two-storey wood-frame structure is where he’d throw the football around with his two older brothers, have big family dinners, commute to and from university and everything in between.
A walk down memory lane
Walking up the driveway at 7640 Berkley St. on his birthday, Burnett couldn’t help but tell his daughter and wife, Ann, what the property used to look like.
“There were three big cherry trees out front,” the West Vancouverite said, adding that as a kid, he ate so many on one occasion he almost died. “My mother’s bedroom was right there,” he noted, pointing to the front-facing window on the ground floor. “My bedroom was over there, on the top floor.”
He described how the property, which eventually sold as 10 lots, used to have a tennis court, a football field, a picnic area and a backyard barn that housed ducks, chickens and a pony named Bessey. In the winter, he and all the neighbourhood kids would pack themselves onto a big sled and ride it down Canada Way.
Sultan Karim, who’s owned the historic home since 1979, greeted the Burnetts at the door, gesturing them to come in.
Once inside, the tour started in the eight-metre-by-nine-metre billiard room, a space at the back end of the house that still contains the original Douglas fir panelling and, of course, a billiard table.
“We had very large weddings here,” recalled Burnett. “We rode our bike around this room. It was a good run.”
Alaina was quick to point out this was the room where two secret doors existed – one to the kitchen and one to the bathroom. Burnett incorrectly guessed where they were on his first try but eventually found them.
He got misty-eyed as he looked around the room.
“It’s an unusual old house. It’s amazing to be back here 40 years later,” he said.
When asked about some of his fondest memories, Burnett talked about barn parties he hosted while he was a UBC student. He broke down in the middle of telling the story. “Excuse me,” he said while he walked away to collect himself. “I’ve never seen that before. At your wedding, there were a couple of tears,” Ann told Alaina, both with tears in their eyes.
Next on the tour was the kitchen and the basement. The basement still carried a musty smell. Burnett said his father poured the concrete walls that remain there today, and Alaina chimed in to say that during the Great Depression, her grandmother and grandfather would get “drifters,” people who would come to the door, begging for food.
“The housekeeper would send the beggars away, but my grandmother ran after them and brought them back, and cooked them a meal,” she said.
Once upstairs, Karim explained how his three grown children still have rooms to call their own, including a 600-square-foot suite in the attic. Today, Burnett’s room has orange carpet, with just a bed and a nightstand. The natural sunlight makes it bright and homey.
As Burnett wandered the halls upstairs, he shared a memory about his dad. His father had inhaled mustard gas during the First World War, and every spring, he’d cough.
“We had to put him away from the rest of the family, so he was put up in the room here, and he stayed there. His wing of the house just smelled terrible,” Burnett said.
Karim said there has been a lot of interest in the five-bedroom and three-bathroom abode, either from people who have memories of the home or from Realtors who want to make an offer (they can’t because of its heritage status). He said a lady knocked on his door one time and told him that her son had been born there. Another stranger stopped by and immediately headed to the basement.
“He wanted to find his secret hideout. According to him, there was an entrance from the garden; a tunnel leading into the basement,” explained Karim. “It would have been a coal delivery chute.”
At the end of the tour, Burnett apologized to Karim about subdividing the property. He wished it could have sold as one.
Before his family put it on the market, Burnett made sure to apply for heritage status.
As a Realtor herself, Alaina said she’s glad he did. Often times, character homes like her father’s get torn down to make room for a cheaper replacement, she said.
“It just kills me. There’s no heart. The soul of the community is these old houses that tell a story,” she said.
Facts about Wintemute House
*The house was built around 1891, prior to the civic incorporation of Burnaby in 1892, but rumour is it may have been built earlier than that.
*The house was built to face Douglas Road (now Canada Way), one of the first roads built to connect the rural farmlands of Burnaby to New Westminster.
*The house is valued for its association with Joseph S. Wintemute (1832-1911) and Jane Wintemute (1832-1910), who came to B.C. from Port Stanley, Ont. in 1865. Joseph was a skilled carpenter and contractor by trade. He operated the Wintemute Furniture Factory in New Westminster, the first furniture plant established on the mainland. He acquired the property in 1891 and set up a cord wood sawmill to supply his factory.
– Source: www.historicplaces.ca
