Roedde House Museum
1415 Barclay St. V6G 1J6 Vancouver, BC, Canada

A great capture by of the house behind snowdrops! Photo credit: @olddad.newtricks

You can listen to our audio tour podcast (available on Spotify, Podcast Addict and iTunes) for a guided tour of Barclay Heritage Square presented by our Board President! The Square includes Barclay Manor, where our lovely friends West End Seniors' Network operate from. The building exterior has been restored to its pre-1909 appearance, looking as it did when Francis Bayne (manager of the Dominion Hotel in Gastown) rebuilt it in 1905. In 1909 a three-story addition had been ad...ded which served as a hospital from 1910-1919 (one of the Roedde granddaughters was born there), though this addition was demolished in 1988. Find the podcast here: SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qC3nJZbfsrw8H21VXURG6 PODCAST ADDICT: https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3034160 ITUNES: https://www.listennotes.com//roedde-house-museum-roedde-h/#

While we miss hosting our Sunday Tea and Tours, we do instead offer a free sample bag of our Roedde Cream Earl Grey tea at the end of each tour! We also sell the tea (bagged or loose) in our gift shop if you want to enjoy more than one cup of this delightful blend at home.

A day late for #museumselfieday but here we are, small staff of two, in the sunny turret, next to a model of Barclay Heritage Square! The turret had been used as a bedroom in the house’s early days, but a tale of one of the daughters sleepwalking out the window and onto the roof meant it was mostly kept as a place for Matilda to grow her geraniums.

We hope you’ve all had an enjoyable start to the New Year! We’re open again for self-guided tours this month on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays from 1-4pm. Purchase your time-entry tickets online through our website (maximum 5 tickets per hour slot). Postcard from our collection. [Image description: Victorian New Year postcard image of anthropomorphic fruit and drink ingredients surrounding a bowl labeled contributors to punch.]

With snow in the forecast for this weekend, today’s #roedderecipechallenge is for Victorian soup recipes from Mrs. Beeton- you can choose from ‘Tomato Soup (without meat)’, ‘Tomato Soup’, ‘Vegetable Soup’ or ‘Vermicelli Soup’! Tag us if you give one of these a try.

Merry Christmas! We always display our Christmas tree in the same spot that the Roedde family placed there’s- how do we know where this was? We can still see the charred wooden panels from when their Christmas tree caught fire in 1913 after it was left up for too long in January (a bad combination with the tree candles which were clipped to the branches). The nearby firehall saved the day, and in the end it gave the Roeddes a chance to redo the Dining Room in the popular Arts and Crafts style of the period! Image description: A Victorian-styled Christmas tree decorated with candles (not lite), little bears and other small decorations, displayed in the bay windows of the Dining Room. Wrapped Christmas presents with bows are under the tree and on an antique child’s sled.

Ghost stories at Christmas were a popular tradition in the past, and Charles Dickens made more contributions to these stories than A Christmas Carol. You can hear an excerpt from Dickens’ The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, read aloud by our talented volunteer Christine, in our latest newsletter (https://us7.campaign-archive.com/)! For those looking to see the ghosts of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, you can still find tickets for our Immersive Christmas Carol tours online! https://www.myzonetickets.com//an-immersive-christmas-caro [Image description: 1912 book cover illustration for The Haunted Man showing a Victorian man in cloak walking into an alcove, during a snowy night, while a nearby lantern casts a menacing shadow which follows him.]

We’ve received some exciting new acquisitions to our collection, generously donated by great granddaughters of Gustav and Matilda, Martha and Katherine. These two baby shoes belonged to Gwen (shown in the picture behind), who lived in Roedde House with her mother Emma, and grandparents Gustav and Matilda, while her father was overseas in WWI. In a later interview Gwen recalled: I can remember during the War when we lived here all the time. Uncle Bill went over early, he was... in the trenches, and oh, it must have been bad...And the familyGrandmother, the aunts and motherwould knit socks, wool socks, for the soldiers who were walking around the muck up to their ankles. I can still see a jar of ducks that Grandmother preserved. She’d wrap the socks around the jar and they actually got those in the trenches. [Photo of sisters Gwen and Kay with Gwen’s shoes posed at front. Photo of Gwen and Kay with Gustav and Matilda in the backyard of Roedde House in 1911-12. Photo of Gwen and Kay with bows in their hair.]

View of Roedde House’s turret from Barclay Heritage Square Park- before we discovered that the paint layers revealed it had been the green shade it is now. We are open for self-guided tours Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays with time slots from 1-4pm. You can pre-purchase tickets online, or purchase at the door if available (credit card payment preferred).

Here’s a few pictures from Viola Roedde’s family album, showing her and Bill ice skating on Trout Lake in December of 1914! Also a few photos of her enjoying -40 temperatures in Saskatchewan. Happy holidays everyone!! Image description: Viola and Bill wearing ice skates on a snow covered lake with ice skaters in background. Viola smiles at the camera and is dressed in a large check wool beret and matching coat while holding a fur muff. Bill, looking to his right, is wearing a suit and cap while smoking a pipe and holding his overcoat.

Thank you to all of our lovely volunteers who continued to go above and beyond this year as they helped keep the museum going! From contributing remotely via zoom, to creating our online school tour, to supporting our tours and special events. We are so grateful and look forward to hopefully more normal times ahead! {Image description: Our volunteer Christine, dressed up in Victorian garb (with lace cap, floral shawl and brooch at her collar) for our Christmas Carol Tours, holds a wrapped parcel in front of a Christmas tree in the Dining Room.}

Our latest online jazz concert (filmed early November) is now available to watch on YouTube! Our monthly jazz concerts, always hosted in our historic 1893 parlour, have been on hold since COVID, but thanks to a Community Arts Grant from the City of Vancouver and donations from our jazz fans we’ve been able to continue the series in this online format. To help support our local artists and keep the series going into next year, you can donate here: https://my.charitableimpact.c...om//roedde-house-pre/gift/new This latest concert features Bill Coon on the guitar and Cameron Wilson on violin. We hope you enjoy this set with songs like Lazin' with Ita, Sunday Morning, and Cheek to Cheek! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxvyzjkIy1w&feature=youtu.be [Image description: A closeup shot of the antique Steinway piano in our parlour with Victorian Duet Gems music book on display. Green festive garland decorates the top of the piano.]

A peek into the Girl’s Room closet where you can still find traces of the wallpaper layers discovered during restoration in the 1980’s! One layer had green wallpaper with white flowers, and an another layer was made up of radiating silver stars (both of these layers looked original). More layers revealed a pink pattern with half-moons and another was brown with silver lines and clouds.

At the end of each Immersive Christmas Carol tour visitors receive a little gift; a Christmas card and pin from the tour’s producers, Famous Artists Limited, and a small sweet from us! Tickets are still available for you to book a 45min time-slot for you and/or members of your household (max 5 per slot). Don’t miss out!

Here’s a quick and simple little Victorian recipe for this week’s #roedderecipechallenge , Rich Spice Cakes! Please do tag us if you give it a try! Rich Spice Cakes Time, ten or twelve minutes. A pound and a half of flour; three-quarters of a pound of sugar; three-quarters of a pound of butter; half a teacupful of mixed spice.... Well work the butter, flour, and sugar together with the spices, until thoroughly incorporated; roll it thin. Cut into small cakes, and bake in a moderate oven. [Image description: Roedde kitchen table display with sunlight streaming in through lace curtains. The table is covered with a Victorian recipe book (open to a colourful illustration of fruit desserts), a mixing bowl with wooden spoon, enamel flour sifter, wooden rolling pin, decorative porcelain serving plates and a metal scale with oranges resting on top.]

Walk with the Spirits of Christmas this season at Roedde House. Chains clank, spirits appear, and voices swirl as you tread in the footsteps of Ebenezer Scrooge and witness the shadows of Christmas past, present, and yet to come. Immerse yourself in Charles Dickens’ classic tale, A Christmas Carol, inside our unique Victorian home in the heart of Vancouver’s West End. This word premiere production by Famous Artists is filled with sound and visual effects which will bring th...is well-loved Christmas story to life! Timed entry tickets ensure safety and an intimate experience within Scrooge’s world- bring your bubble to the home of the world’s most famous miser! December 8th-12th and 15th-19th with time slots between 5pm-9:15pm. https://roeddehouse.org//en/featured-events/christmas-carol Book your tickets here: https://www.myzonetickets.com//an-immersive-christmas-caro

This stained glass window is original to the house, and on a rainy day like today it makes the view all the better. While it’s the only original, Roedde granddaughter Gwen, who lived in the house with her mother Emma and sister Kay during WWI, recalled: The one on the stairwell was beautiful and you couldn’t see through it, that (the neighbouring view) was never a very beautiful area. People who lived there weren’t gardeners and didn’t look after it, so this stained glass w...indow was a beautiful scene and of very good stained glass...A country scene, as far as I remember, with a cottage and hills, rivers, flowers, blue sky and trees and very small pieces, so you could not look through it. [Image description: A woman with long hair, dressed in a white cotton eyelet Edwardian lawn dress, stands looking out of the colourful stained glass window located in the museum’s front entrance. This window has square patterns trimmed in blue and red with a violet centre and a diamond shape with etched winding leaf pattern in the middle.]

Here’s another pair of Victorian recipes for a #roedderecipechallenge for you, a Tipsy Cake and Gingerbread Pudding from Warne's Model Cookery and Housekeeping Book! [Image description: A tin cake mould, Victorian recipe book, and silver fork and knife next to an intricate silver plate.] Tipsy Cake:... Time, one hour and three-quarters or two hours, to soak the cake. One large round stale spongecake; one glass and a half of brandy; sufficient sherry or raisin wine to soak it; juice of half a lemon; three ounces of sweet almonds; one pint of rich custard. Place a large spongecake in the glass dish in which it is to be served; make a small hole in the centre, pour in over the cake a sufficient quantity of sherry or raisin wine (mixed with a glass and a half of brandy and the juice of half a lemon), to soak it thoroughly. Then blanch two or three ounces of sweet almonds; cut them into long spikes, stick them all over the cake, and pour round it a pint of very rich custard. Gingerbread Pudding: Time, to boil, two hours Six ounces of bread-crumbs; six ounces of suet; two ounces of flour; half a pound of treacle; a teaspoonful of ground ginger. Grate six ounces of stale bread, and mix it with the suet chopped very fine, and two ounces of flour. Add the ground ginger, and mix all well together with half a pound of treacle. Put it into a mould, and boil it.

It’s the last day of setup before we launch our Immersive Christmas Carol tours beginning tomorrow and going until December 19th! Experience this classic Victorian tale, written by Charles Dickens and first published in 1843, in an authentic Victorian setting! The plate photographed is from our collection and commemorates Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. She reigned from 1837-1901 and Roedde House was built in 1889! [Image description: Small commemorative Golden Jubilee plate with dark red border, gold accents and painted image of Queen Victoria at centre, set on a wooden plate stand in the Dining Room.]

Did you know that our school program is online this year? While we would normally be in the midst of tours for Grade 4 & 5 classes, this year we have filmed a special tour of the house which is available for free on our website: https://roeddehouse.org/website/index.php/en/education There’s also additional activities available to coincide with the video tour. Anyone with an interest in learning about the Roedde family in the Victorian period is encouraged to make use of these resources. To watch the video, simply fill in the form with your name and email, and a password will be sent to you. Happy learning!

Fall coloured fashions currently on display from the collection of Ivan Sayers!

Prepare to see some ghosts at our Immersive Christmas Carol as you follow in the footsteps of Ebenezer Scrooge on a tour through our restored Victorian 1893 house! The story will come to life through audio and visual effects! Book time slots for 1 or up to 5 people in your bubble. Dec. 8th-19th 45min self-guided tour Masks required... Tickets available online [Image description: Lithograph image of Scrooge scowling with a quill in hand. Second image is a written excerpt from A Christmas Carol: Stave One, Marley’s Ghost]

Hoping to visit us? Take a moment to prebook your tickets online through our website (5 available per hour from 1-4pm Thur/Fri/Sun). https://www.myzonetickets.com/e/189654/rmh-tour-admissions For those unable to visit in person, you can tour through the house online and take advantage of our audio tour for additional stories- see our website for access! https://roeddehouse.org/website/index.php/en/

Christmas Carol fans, you will not want to miss our unique presentation of the story through immersive audio and visual effects as you walk through each room on a one-way routed tour. All taking place inside our historic 1893 house museum done up for a Victorian Christmas (as the Roedde would have celebrated)! You can book a 45min time slot for up to 5 people in your bubble (bubbles of 5 get to enter for the price of 4). Tickets on sale now! https://roeddehouse.org//en/fea...tured-events/christmas-carol [Image Description: An illustration from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol done by John Leech in the 1840s. This depicts Scrooge, sitting by the fireplace, warming his hands and ready to enjoy a bowl of gruel, looking surprised by the ghost of Marley who approaches dragging his chains attached to ledgers and cash boxes.]

Tree is decorated! Did you know that the Roedde family’s Christmas tree caught fire in January of 1913? You can still see the charred marks on the wooden door frame, next to where we display our current tree! Don’t forget we are closed this week but open again for self-guided tours on Dec. 10th and our Christmas Carol events starting Dec.8th! [Image description: A closeup of our Christmas tree, decorated with doily snowflakes, tassels, pine cones, small wooden ornaments and clip-on candles.]

Newel post lamp, Auora, reflected back in a Victorian mirror (which once held a candle sconce). This mirror shares the wall with the English longcase clock which was built in 1775!

Story goes, that Matilda was not happy that Francis Rattenbury did not include a basement in the house, so to compensate he added a turret which gave Matilda a view of English Bay. Granddaughter Gwen, who lived in the house with her mother and sister during WWI, recalled thinking of the turret as a real sleeping beauty tower. [Image description: Exterior of Roedde House, an 1893 Victorian home, with prominent view of the turret tower. The house is green, with darker evergreen trim and red tiled roofing trimming the base of the cupola.]

Don’t forget we’re open Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays from 1-4pm with timed-entry tickets available for purchase online! We’ll be closed for a week from November 30th to December 6th but then open again starting on December 8th for special evening tours of An Immersive Christmas Carol! Regular daytime self-guided tours will resume from December 10th to December 20th. See our website for details and updates!

Looking for a fun activity for your class, household, or community group? How about trying your hand at marbling paper! Gustav Roedde was well known for his expertise in this technique and we have many stunning examples of his work in our collection. See the ‘Education’ page of our website to find this and other activities you can do from home! https://roeddehouse.org/website/index.php/en/education [Image description: A stack of books from the Roedde collection, with their edges showcasing colourfully marbled paper designs. Second photo shows the interior of a book’s marbles page.]

On a chilly day like this, a warm cup of coffee or hot cocoa really hits the spot! Gustav and Matilda Roedde always had coffee at the ready. Granddaughter Gwen recalled that Gustav proudly got his beans from the same vendor as the Hotel Vancouver. {Second photo includes tips from Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery Book}

Our latest Culture Days episode on Victorian hair art, with local collector and vintage shop owner Beckiy Weinberger, is now up on our YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/playlist

We’ve just finished filming our #culturedays tea and talk about Victorian hair jewelry which should be up for viewing on our YouTube channel by Thursday! Thanks to @trunkofdresses for sharing her collection with us today!

At the start of WWI, Bill Roedde (son of Gustav and Matilda) joined the Seaforth Highlanders of Vancouver as a Reserve before enlisting with the 68th Artillery Battery in 1916 and being sent overseas to serve on the Western Front where he received a Good Conduct Medal. He was hospitalized in both France and England late in the War, for various illnesses, and only returned to Canada in May of 1919. His wife, Viola, created a scrapbook of photos with notes documenting these years.

We’re open as usual on Sunday from 1-4pm! Book your time slot online through our website and enjoy exploring the museum at your own pace on a self-guided tour with available audio stories.

Thank you to everyone who bought tickets to our series of Speakeasy events in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the museum’s opening! It was a great run and so lovely to see all of your masked selves. We will be announcing the prize winners from a draw of all ticket holders this coming Thursday! {Photo of our wonderful volunteer, Christine}

The first episode in our short series of tea and talks for Culture Days is now up on our YouTube channel! This week we spoke to local historic tailor and collector Parker McIntosh, as he showcased authentic Victorian men’s fashion pieces from his collection. https://www.youtube.com/watch

Our second round of Speakeasy Fundraiser nights is about to begin tonight at 5:30pm! Looking forward to seeing all those who bought tickets! {Film photo capture of the Ivan Sayers display by Noriko Tidball on a 1929 Brownie camera}

There’s currently only 1 ticket left for our Speakeasy Fundraiser events- this last one is for the Saturday October 17th 7:30pm timeslot, so if you were thinking of going, best snap it up quick! Thanks to all who have already purchased, we look forward to seeing you tomorrow and Saturday!

Good morning! Here’s a simple Victorian #roedderecipechallenge for your future breakfasts (and tips on how to prepare eggs thanks to Warne’s Model Cookery and Housekeeping Book): Tea Rolls: Time, Fifteen to twenty minutes. One pound of flour; a quarter of a pound of butter; one tablespoonful of good yeast; one egg; a little warm milk. Rub the butter into the flour, then add the yeast, breaking in one egg, both yolk and white. Mix it with a little warm milk poured into the middle of the flour; stir all well together, and set it by the fire to rise, then make it into light dough, and again set it by the fire. Make up the rolls, lay them in a tin, and set them in front of the fire for 10 minutes before you put them into the oven, brushing them over with egg.

Thanks to everyone who bought tickets for the first two days of our Speakeasy Fundraisers this last Friday and Saturday- it was a swell time! There are still more tickets available for the next round on October 16th and 17th (10 guests per time slot and masks are required).

We’re excited to announce that we have had very generous support from local historians and heritage and culture organizations which have donated a door prize for each of our fundraiser events! Thank you so much to: Ivan Sayers, @evelazarus @museumofvan @ghostlyvancouvertours @beatymuseum @forbidden_tour @policemuseum

Sneak peak! This Friday is the first day of our series of Speakeasy-themed fundraiser events with a new exhibit from Ivan Sayers! If you can’t make it to the fundraiser, then you can see the exhibit on your next visit.

We now have online learning resources available for free this school year for teachers and parents- see our website’s Online Leaning page under the Education tab!

Culture Days starts tomorrow and continues on until October 25th! In celebration, we will be hosting 3 virtual tea and talk events where we invite you to grab a cup of tea at home and tune in for a live-streamed chat with a local collector speaking about curious Victorian fashions. Schedule: October 6th- Victorian tailoring October 13th- Victorian hair jewelry October 20th- Victorian fashion trends ... https://culturedays.ca//9d261d4c-2e16-4393-8110-7de027a896 See more

Pouring rain makes for a good day spent indoors listening to music. This is the Roedde family’s original music cabinet filled with old sheet music!

If you’re looking for some glamour and a chance to dress up in October then be sure to grab tickets to ‘Speakeasy Style’, our series of fundraiser events with a 1920’s fashion exhibit by Ivan Sayers! Only 10 tickets are available per 90min time slot. See our website for details.

We’ll be presenting (virtually) on interesting Victorian fashions and accessories for Culture Days in October (stay tuned) but in the meantime, here’s a great snippet from a blog post by local historical tailor @parker_mcintosh: "Here I present from my collection this digital copy of The Ladies Tailor, April 1, 1894" that I scanned from the original in my collection. The Ladies Tailor was a weekly or monthly publication produced by The John Williamson Co Ltd and edited by WDF Vincent, a prolific and well respected tailoring author of his time.

Exciting news! In celebration of the Museum’s 30th anniversary (having opened in 1990) we are hosting a series of fundraiser events in conjunction with the opening of a new exhibit of roaring 20’s fashions from the collection of Ivan Sayers! Sliding scale tickets for our Speakeasy Style nights on October 2nd, 3rd, 16th and 17th are now live- see our website for event details and to purchase!