Vancouver Public Library

The Gutenberg bible is one of the most valuable and sought after books in the world. Our Vancouver Public Library owns one of its pages.

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Last year, Daien Ide, reference historian at the North Vancouver Museum and Archives was sitting at her desk when she got a tip. A 1994 model of a proposed Lions Gate twinned bridge had turned up at the Burnaby Hospice Thrift Store on Kingsway with a… Continue reading Saving History: Twinning the Lions Gate Bridge

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History This photo of a bombed out car in 1932 has been bugging me ever since a reader posted it on my Facebook page a few weeks ago. So this week I made a trip to the Vancouver Public Library to find out its back story. It… Continue reading Movie projectionist escapes death when bomb wrecks car

In some ways, researching your home is like an archeological dig. But with a bit of patience you can find out who built your home, who lived there before you, who was murdered there, who died of a comfortable old age, perhaps, even, who’s haunting it now. 1. City Directories: I always start with the… Continue reading Who lived in your house — in 10 (mostly easy) steps

Marsha Fuller was cleaning out a client’s attic in Western Maryland a couple of weeks ago when she came across this postcard of a traffic accident featuring a Grandview street car in 1909. Marsha’s company, Your Mother’s Attic, helps the relatives of the newly dead sort out what is often a lifetime of possessions—she often comes across these… Continue reading An Accidental Postcard

On February 23, Jennifer Clay gave an A to Z workshop to home owners wanting to research the history of their homes. Jennifer has written a guest blog based on her presentation. By Jennifer Clay I live in a 1926 heritage home in North Vancouver, and while I had a vague idea of the previous occupants of… Continue reading Researching John Bull’s House

I met with Will Woods for coffee last week. Will is a young Brit who moved to Vancouver six years ago with his wife and little boy, and like a lot of us transplants, fell deeply in love with the history of the city. You may have seen him hunched over the card files at… Continue reading Forbidden Vancouver

Most municipalities have a heritage inventory that includes houses built before 1940. Makes sense doesn’t it? When you think heritage you think old. But actually heritage can be 20 years old, and that can surprise a new home owner wanting to renovate or demolish who is suddenly hauled in front of a heritage commission.