Vancouver Heritage House Tour to return in-person for the first time since 2019
Posted May 12, 2023 9:25 pm.
Vancouver’s Heritage House Tour is back and in-person for the first time in three years after going virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Heritage Discovery Day and House Tour, as it’s now known, is set for Sunday, June 4.
According to Vancouver Heritage Foundation Program Manager Sarah Carlson, Koo’s Corner is an example of an adaptive re-use. It can be seen on the Vancouver Heritage House Tour June 4. (Courtesy: Martin Knowles Photo/Media)
“It feels incredibly exciting to be back in person for the first time since 2019,” said Sarah Carlson, program manager for the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. “I think people have really missed the opportunity to get inside and have that kind of physical experience of touring through these amazing homes.”
This year’s theme is Strathcona, often called Vancouver’s first neighbourhood.
“One of the things that drew us to Strathcona was the diversity,” Carlson explained.
“You have a Ukrainian hall, there’s a Russian hall, there’s a synagogue that’s now been converted into housing, there were factories, there were corner stores, laundries. There’s such a wide range of different things and layers upon layers of history.”
Carlson adds there is more to the tour than just the houses themselves.
“Yes, there’s these amazing houses, beautiful history, and built heritage there. But there are these incredible stories that are connected to the people that are there now and have come before,” she said. “Before the site was even settled, it was an Indigenous site, it was a foraging site, and so the land has so much to tell us.”
Related articles:
-
Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
-
White Riot: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver
The Heritage Discovery Day and House Tour runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on June 4. Ticket sales are being capped at 500 to allow the homes to handle the volume of visitors. You can find more information on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation website.
