What’s happening?
The popular New Westminster Heritage Homes Tour returns for its 38th year on Sunday, May 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society hosts the tour, which features 11 private homes (as well as Irving House) and shows how heritage homes can be blended with modern-day living.
What’s included on this year’s tour?
This year’s lineup includes homes in the Queen’s Park, Moody Park, Glenbrooke, Sapperton and Victory Heights neighbourhoods. While there are some newcomers on the tour, there are also some favourites from past tours and homes that have been updated since they last appeared on the tour.
“We try to feature as many neighbourhoods as possible,” said Catherine Hutson of the New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society. “We have houses that speak to seven decades of heritage architecture or built heritage, but each house seems to have its own fascinating back story.”
Whether you like Edwardian, Georgian Revival, English Arts and Crafts or mid-century modern homes, you’ll find something to your liking on the tour. You’ll find homes that have been lovingly restored and others that have been renovated so they better suit the owners’ needs.
In Victory Heights, you’ll see a 1950’s home that’s had a second-floor addition and a 1940’s wartime bungalow that’s “whimsical and quirky” inside, while you’ll visit a 1962 mid-century modern stunner that’s had a “gentle” addition in Sapperton.
One of the homes in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood has been on the tour before, but features a new look.
“In the '80s and '90s, hunter green and dark burgundy were very fashionable,” Hutson said. “Now we have a much younger couple, who bought it, gutted the kitchen – it has this lightness. It sort of represents this generation’s idea of living in an older house. It’s like a new house.”
What if I don’t live in a heritage home?
Even if you don’t live in a heritage home, you’ll get loads of décor ideas as you view restored or renovated homes and beautiful gardens.
How popular is this event?
“It’s an economic driver. We have sold 30,000 tickets, at least, since 1980. The first few years were slow,” said Hutson, who moved to New Westminster in 1989 after attending the 1988 tour. “It has turned into an event where people from all over the Lower Mainland come to New Westminster once a year.”
Ticket info, please:
Tickets are $35 or $30 for members of the New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society. You can buy them online at www.newwestheritage.org or pop into Royal City Colours (700 12th St.); Champagne Taste (1101 Royal Ave.); New Westminster Museum and Archives/Anvil Centre (777 Columbia St.); and Gardenworks Mandeville (4746 Marine Dr., Burnaby).
