At Home with History

You wouldn’t buy a house without having a building inspector check the foundation, so why wouldn’t you research your potential home’s history? A heritage house at Fraser and East 10th went up for sale last week for $1.4 million. It wasn’t the price-tag though (low by Vancouver standards) that captured people’s attention, it was the… Continue reading Would you buy a murder house?

I finally got to motor up Indian Arm and see the Wigwam Inn–well from the outside. You can’t get inside unless you’re a member of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History It seems crazy to me that it’s still fairly inaccessible (unless you own a boat), yet… Continue reading The Wigwam Inn at Indian Arm

There are two vastly different West End housing proposals going before Vancouver council this week and both have implications about how we view heritage in our development-mad city. One, in Mole Hill, involves the community’s desire to designate Mole Hill as a Heritage Conservation Area; while the other is a way to redevelop and save… Continue reading West End Heritage–a chance to have your say

Charles Marega died on March 27, 1939. And, while you may not know his name you will know his work. Those are his two lion statues at the south end of the Lions Gate Bridge. And while the lions may be his most well known work, Charles (or Carlos as he was christened) was a… Continue reading The work of Charles Marega (1871-1939)

  It may not be the grandest house on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s tour, but I bet 446 Union Street house is one of the most interesting, at least when it comes to its social history. Story from: Sensational Vancouver Adamo Piovesan built the brick house in 1930 for his wife Maria and their four… Continue reading 446 Union Street

When I was researching my 2007 book At Home with History I spent most of my life at the Vancouver Archives and on the 7th floor of the Vancouver Public Library. Now, instead of trekking downtown, much of the information is available to me here at home. Today, the digital world just got a bit… Continue reading Online Porn for History Nerds

If you’re a property owner in Metro Vancouver and looking for relief in this year’s property tax bill, well let’s just say it’s not going to happen. For property owners living in one of the priciest regions of the country—the West Coast real estate market keeps going up—and so does your bill. The good news… Continue reading The Top 10 Most Expensive Houses in BC: nine are in Vancouver

Ghosts are said to be attracted to houses where there is a lot of activity. For Jim, a carpenter, and Lou, a massive renovation of their Queen Anne home on Townsend Place, in New Westminster, seems to have awoken them. Townsend Place: Whatever the reason, for a few years the old house was haunted. Jim… Continue reading The Ghosts of Townsend Place

Alvo von Alvensleben not only has a name you couldn’t make up, he’s one of the most fascinating characters in BC’s history. For some mysterious reason he has never rated a biography, but there is a chapter dedicated to him in my book At Home with History. I was just browsing my bookshelf and thinking… Continue reading The Mulligan Affair and other BC characters