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Community Services | |||
| Planning: Current Planning |
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Vancouver |
Historic Building Research GuideIntroductionThis research guide is meant to assist those who may wish to nominate a building to the Vancouver Heritage Register as part of completing the required Vancouver Heritage Register (VHR) Nomination Form. The research can then assist City staff in further evaluating whether the building has sufficient architectural and historical merit to be included on the Heritage Register. Researching a building can reveal interesting documentation, archival plans and historic photographs. Each of these add tremendous value and knowledge of your building's original design and history, particularly design features that may have been lost over the years. Once your building has been evaluated and qualifies for status on the Vancouver Heritage Register, your nomination can be forwarded to the Vancouver Heritage Commission for its review and to Council for final approval. By following the steps of this guide and using the attached Nomination Form, it is hoped that you will find the process of researching your building an interesting and enjoyable experience. This is also a practical guide for those who would like to find more historic and architectural information about a particular building in the City of Vancouver but are not planning on nominating it for the Heritage Register. RESEARCH SOURCES TO COMPLETE VHR NOMINATION FORMThe following is a list of all the information needed to successfully complete the attached VHR Nomination Form. Not all the sections of the Nomination Form are mandatory to complete, but if more information can be provided, it may reveal the cultural value of your building. This may add significantly to the final evaluation of your nomination. The headings below are referenced in the VHR Nomination Form. Under each section of this guide, there is a list of possible sources of information. The "Where To Go" section located at the end of this guide includes the address, telephone number and website (if available) of the various sources. If you have any problems finding the information required, the employees at the research location can offer assistance. RESEARCH LOCATIONSCVA - City of Vancouver Archives Note: The City Archives and the Vancouver Public Library have each published helpful reference guides for those who wish to do further research on historic buildings. RESEARCH STEPSThe two mandatory research steps are to document the construction history of a building and to document the history of the land and building ownership and occupation. Further information such as significant persons or events, biographical information and archival photographs, are not mandatory, but can be useful and interesting to include with your submission if they are available. STEP 1: Construction History of a BuildingInformation on building construction is the starting point for an owner's research. The history of a building can be either in the form of a Water Service/Permit Record and/or a Building Permit. For the VHR Nomination form, at least one of these permits must be attached. Tax assessment records may also be useful if neither the water service permits nor the building permits can provide an exact date of construction. Fire insurance maps and plans supplement the permit records. Water Service/Permit RecordsThese records can provide significant information about your building's date of construction and the owner, and often additional information such as the use of the building, the number of storeys and the name of the builder. However, caution should be used since a building may have had the water service reconnected at a later date than its construction. Also, water permit records may actually indicate an earlier building on the property that has since been demolished. This information must be balanced with other evidence, such as a building permit (if available) and fire insurance maps, to discover the approximate date of construction. Sources:
Building PermitsBuilding permits provide important information about a building, such as the date of construction, the owner, the architect, the contractor and the estimated value of work. They may also provide information about any subsequent additions or alterations to your building. Sources:
Helpful Hint: Heritage Vancouver has assembled a computer database of Vancouver building permits (1900-1914) that can be purchased for $25.00. If you have a compatible database program on your computer (either Mac or PC) you can use the Heritage Vancouver Database program to access building permit numbers by architect, date, location, owner, builder, historic street name or legal description. (The "Where To Go" section located at the end of this guide includes the group's website and telephone number.) Property Tax AssessmentTax assessment records provide information about property owners and land values in the past, as well as assessments made on real property and improvements. For the VHR Nomination Form this information may be helpful to determine either the original date of construction or the date of additions to the building if water or building permits are not available. Source:
Sources:
Helpful Hints: If you are unable to find your building, it may be that the street name/number changed. Check this by looking in the CVA handbook of street name changes or in the book "Vancouver Street Names" by Elizabeth Walker, Vancouver Historical Society, 1999. For a comprehensive guide of places that have collections of fire insurance maps you can consult Frances Woodward's "BC Fire Insurance Plans: A Union List" in BC Studies, No. 42, Summer 1979 STEP 2: Land and Building Ownership and OccupationFor the VHR Nomination Form, a complete list of previous owners and occupants is mandatory. The two sources are City Directories and a Land Title search. City DirectoriesCity Directories can provide information about the past occupants of your building. However, these persons may not have been the actual owners of the property. Often Directories compiled after 1920 will indicate a resident owner with an asterisk. Using the street address of your building, you can find the names of the previous residents. The corresponding alphabetical surname section in the Directory (if provided) may give further socio-economic information such as the resident's occupation and spouse names.
Helpful Hints: Note that for houses, the listing of addresses in the City Directories begins around 1890. Prior to 1890, generally there are only names, except for some businesses that list addresses. If you encounter problems finding your building listed in the City Directories,
cross-check with Fire Insurance Plans to see whether the numeric address
of your building has been changed at some point during its history. Also,
many of Vancouver's streets have had different names over the years. These
can be discovered by researching fire insurance maps or consult with the
CVA which has a handbook documenting street name changes. Alternatively,
the book "Vancouver Street Names" by Elizabeth Walker, Vancouver
Historical Society, 1999, lists all historic street names and corresponding
changes. Land TitleThis source supplements information from the City Directories. It is most useful when these Directories show only the resident and not the owner, and in such cases it may be the only definitive way to determine ownership history of the building. If the City Directories do not reveal historic ownership, the Land Title search is required as part of the VHR Nomination Form. Land Title documentation is based on sequential ownership. It begins with the current owner and traces the sale of the property back to the original Crown Grant of the 1860's. Searching the Land Titles for your property provides very accurate legal information about the previous owners of the land your building occupies. You can search for Land Title transfers and these will provide further information such as the persons who bought and sold the property, the purchase price and any mortgages held on title. This information may reveal historical legal descriptions if your building was once part of a larger parcel of property that was subdivided. If you need to do a Land Title search, there are two available options:
For both of the above options, you must provide the street address and the legal description of your property to begin a Land Title search. The legal description of your property is found on your mortgage documents and legal survey plan. Helpful Hint: Searching out Land Titles or Land Title transfers can become very expensive depending on how many times your building was bought and sold and the time that it takes staff to do the research. It is best to determine a budget of what you are willing to spend before beginning a search. Whether using the Land Title Office or a private firm, advise them of how much you are willing to spend and ask them to contact you when they have reached that amount. Also, it is important to inform the Land Title Office or the private firm of how far back you wish to have the research. Begin by estimating when your building was constructed. That way, the title search will not extend back beyond the date of construction and incur unnecessary costs. (For example, if you have a house that appears to have been built in the 1920's, and you already have found a water permit for 1924, you may want to limit the land title search to everything after 1922.) The cost will ultimately depend on the time it takes to trace the many transactions. STEP 3: Additional InformationYou may want to provide additional information as an option on your VHR
Nomination Form. This might include notes on significant persons or events
that are connected to your building's history. You can find this sort
of information by talking to previous owners, family members of previous
owners, or long time neighbours/residents. Biographical information is
not always easy to find. However, it is usually interesting and it can
add to the cultural value of your building. Helpful Hint: You can also look for information on persons or events in such places as newspapers, community records, obituaries etc.. Many of these are referenced in the City Archives under "newspaper clippings". The B.C. Archives and Records Service website has a Vital Statistics event database listing many births, marriages and deaths recorded by the Provincial Government. The dates of these events can lead to newspaper articles printed in Vancouver's newspapers (available on microfilm) that can provide valuable information for the researcher. Historic photographs and architectural plans are not mandatory as part of the VHR Nomination Form. However, they can supplement the other basic information and be helpful to verify the architectural integrity of the building by comparing them with current photographs. Historic PhotographsHistoric photographs are an invaluable resource for seeking information about buildings and the changes that have occurred to them over time. Historical photographs of your building may show lost architectural details that could add significant value to its nomination to the Heritage Register. Knowledge of these lost details will assist with any restoration and may place your building among the best examples of its design type or significantly add to its landmark status in the neighbourhood. Sources:
Helpful Hints: When looking for pictures in either the VPL or CVA collections it is necessary to check a number of headings. For example, look under such headings as Buildings, Churches, Hotels, Schools, Houses, Streets, Vancouver Scenes, as well as trying such possibilities as the name of the street, the names of previous owners, etc. Ask previous owners and neighbors to check their albums and files for historical pictures of your building. Architectural PlansArchitectural plans provide information about the various features of your building such as the floor plan, elevation, structural specifications, additions or alterations, as well as interior and exterior ornamentation. They also provide the architect or architectural firm responsible for the design of your building. If available, this information can provide significant value to your building nomination. Sources:
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Questions or Comments? E-mail: planning@city.vancouver.bc.ca
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