Plan saves heritage home

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 27, 2006


A grand old Irish-style heritage home in the middle of the Buckingham Heights neighbourhood will be protected under the terms of a heritage revitalization agreement recently approved at city hall.

The agreement will allow the 1923 Haddon House that was featured in the Jan. 21 issue of the Burnaby NOW to be relocated to one side of the double-lot property and a new home to be built on the remaining parcel.

"The house will be saved, and it will be saved in the neighbourhood where it belongs," said longtime homeowner Celine Podins, who originally wanted to find a family willing to purchase the home and relocate it off the property.

Under the revised plan, the new owners of the Haddon House will be allowed to build a secondary suite, open a bed-and-breakfast operation and build a new two-storey accessory building on their half of the property.

The Haddon House is described as one of Burnaby's "landmark residential heritage buildings."

Designed and built by renowned architect William Dodson, the home was originally constructed for the secretary of Vancouver General Hospital, George S. Haddon and his wife Jessie.

The Haddon House is adjacent to the city's official heritage precinct in Deer Lake Park and directly across the street from another protected heritage home, the 1912 J.D. Shearer home.