A fascinating exercise to carry out about a particular piece of property includes finding out what the area surrounding the site was like over time.
One method that works very well is to go decade by decade to see what was being developed in the home's neighbourhood.
Which house was first? When was it built? Is it still there? Who were the initial residents?
The imagination can fill in wonderful scenes of land covered in trees and underbrush, gradually giving way to axes and saws as someone built their first home, perhaps homesteading, perhaps with a small garden, and on the story goes.
Over the years we have been involved with projects by local school classes who wanted to know more about their particular neighbourhoods and how they had changed. Classes from schools such as McBride, Robson, Tweedsmuir and the high school enjoyed finding out what used to be in their immediate vicinity and what was still the same over the years. It can be eye opening to find out how "your area" grew up.
An upcoming walking tour with a central focus of a very old house, will be exploring that building's immediate neighbourhood from the 1860s, when there was little to accompany it on the hillside, to the present day, with a soon-to-be brand new school building.
The story of the neighbourhood of this fine home includes a large number of sites and tales from almost 150 years of city history.
The house at the centre of this neighbourhood tour is Irving House on Royal Avenue.
The walking tour is on Sunday, June 2. It will start at 1: 30 p.m. near Fourth Street at Queens Avenue, where the city has blocked off Fourth St. to create green space and parking area, and will end near the same location.
The tour is $10 a person, goes rain or shine, and will take about two hours. There is no need to pre-register.
