Attend an Event / House Tours / Heritage House Tour

Heritage House Tour

Architecture. Design. History.

Celebrating 15 years!
Sunday June 4th, 2017 10am to 5pm

Tickets $40/$30 with valid student ID

 

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the 15th annual Heritage House Tour! We heard lots of amazing stories of unexpected connections to the tour homes, and lots of inspiring anecdotes about your own heritage homes. We look forward to bringing you another collection of heritage and character homes in 2018, and hearing more stories! Check back for details of the 2018 Heritage House Tour.

It’s amazing to think the Heritage House Tour is 15 years strong this year! Still our biggest fundraiser of the year, we have opened hundreds of beautifully restored and cared for heritage and character homes across the city in that time. We are proud of the long-term success and popularity of this tour, especially as we also celebrate the 25th anniversary of VHF this year.

In 2017, the tour once again offered a diverse array of homes, including a stunning First Shaughnessy home with some modern touches and a sustainably upgraded character home complete with a hive to help the local bee population. We also visited Strathcona to see the completed renovation of Places That Matter site, the Walter and Mary Chan House, significant for it’s connection to SPOTA and the fight to save Strathcona from freeway development in the 1960s. Guests marveled at the recent restoration of the principal rooms in B.T. Rogers’ dream home, Shannon, with a stop inside the gatehouse as well as a chance to take in the Italian garden. Shannon’s main rooms were restored to their 1930s glory using early photographs to select appropriate wallpaper, glass, paneling and plasterwork.

This tour earns 6 Non-Core LUs AIBC

Are you interested in taking a VHF house tour but not sure what to expect? Read our First Timer’s Guide to House Tours here.

In 2016 we offered the chance to take a look at an incredible collection of historic and heritage homes across the city. Ticket holders guided themselves around the city and toured inside heritage and character homes of varying age, scale and retention. From incredibly well-retained homes with intriguing historic details such as push button light switches, service call buttons and back service stairwells, to beautifully updated residences with modern kitchens and bathrooms, the 2016 tour offered a chance to see inside a variety of Vancouver's historic homes.

We saw how one owner used their incredible collection of Asian and African artwork and furnishings to blend seamlessly with an almost entirely untouched 1913 Arts & Crafts home. The tour also offered three estate homes built for Vancouver's elite, one fully renovated, one well-retained with impressive gardens and one empty for nine years but now on the verge of redevelopment. Ticket holders learned about the many variations of the Craftsman home with several examples of this popular architectural style. Popular among those who love Modernist architecture, we also opened the Barber Residence. Built in 1936, it is one of the city's few examples of Art Moderne residential architecture.

Here's a great video from a BC Mills kit house featured on the 2014 Heritage House Tour. Special thanks to James Burton, Claudio Ance, Alix Noble and REW.ca.

Professional Development Credits: AIBC 6 non-core LUs ; PIBC, BOABC, BCSLA, AICBC.

Old School Certificate 1 credit.

Do you or someone you know live in a house that may be a good fit for one of our tours? We are continually searching for great examples of heritage or character, mid-century modern design, sympathetic lane homes behind heritage homes, or renovated Vancouver Specials to open on our tours. If you'd like to know more, or have your home considered for inclusion on a future tour, contact us 604 264 9642 or by email.

See previous tour brochures below.