Ever since I went to Point Ellice House a few weeks ago, I started to become obsessed with house museums. I love the feeling of walking through an old house filled with someone else’s furniture and try to imagine what it was like back then. I love photographing all of the old furniture and decor. I feel like I could travel to a new house museum every week for years and never get bored. I went over to Vancouver yesterday to visit the Roedde House Musem in the west end of the city. I used to live a few blocks from this house and walked past it several times, but I never took notice that it was a museum. I discovered a whole bunch of house museums linked on the website, and now I want to visit them all. I still need to find more on Vancouver Island because I spent 5 hours travelling by ferry and bus to get back to Victoria yesterday evening.
“Gustav and Matilda Roedde settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1888. Gustav opened the first bookbinding business in Vancouver and by 1893 was successful enough to afford to build a house in the new West End neighbourhood. Roedde House, attributed to famed architect Francis Rattenbury, is a City of Vancouver-designated Class A Heritage House.
Since 1990, the Roedde House Preservation Society has taken painstaking care to restore and furnish the house to reflect the ambience of late Victorian family life. Feel free to walk into every room; you will even be invited to touch some artefacts. Come in and experience life in the late 19th century for yourself.
While in the neighbourhood, stroll through the peaceful, leafy Barclay Heritage Square, sit in the gazebo or on one of the many benches, and take in the sights of Roedde House and its neighbours, such as Barclay Manor and the Diamond Centre (1895).”
