15th annual Heritage House Tour
After opening over 200 homes over the past 15 years we are excited to honour this milestone anniversary with a wonderful collection of pre-1940s homes.
Some of the highlights include a sustainable restoration complete with recycled rubber roof and a hive to help the local bee population, a wander through a legendary Vancouver story with the recent restoration of the Walter and Mary Chan house in Strathcona, and a look at the Beaux Arts dream home of sugar magnate B.T. Rogers as we open the restored principal rooms of Shannon Estate along with the Shannon Gatehouse. The tour also includes a First Shaughnessy mansion, a Kerrisdale Craftsman and several other lovingly restored and maintained heritage and character homes.
NEW this year we are also offering a limited number of bus tickets! Leave the car and your parking worries at home and join a small group of heritage enthusiasts as your mini-bus driver does the navigating.
Sunday, June 4
10 am – 5 pm
Register here, $40 or $30 with valid student ID
Call to register for bus tickets, $100
This is a great tour. Sometimes you get the seriously funky Strathcona or East Van gem on the same tour as triple-A heritage Shaughnessy mansions and beautiful West End apartment buildings. Highly recommended. My only quibble is the amount of driving involved. There are some avid cyclists who are always present, but they obviously do not have arthritis.
Also, let’s not be so Vancouver-centric and forget about the equally impressive and original New Westminster Heritage Homes Tour, conveniently held the Sunday prior (May 28th). Well worth the $35. Queens Park is always a delight to walk around (yes, there’s lots less driving once you’re there), and like Vancouver you also get an interesting mix of small cottages and large mansions with the added benefit of sometimes seeing a house in successive stages of renovation over the years. The devotion to heritage and the blood, sweat, tears and wheelbarrows full of cash that go into renos by aficionados is inspirational and neatly counters the house-as-commodity attitude out there. My only quibble with the NW tour is the volunteer burnout which caused them to cancel the tea.
http://newwestheritage.org/heritage-homes-tour/