Archives REFERENCE GUIDE RESEARCHING BUILDINGS AND HOUSES

Transcription

1 Archives REFERENCE GUIDE RESEARCHING BUILDINGS AND HOUSES The Archives has a wide variety of records and other materials on commercial buildings, apartment blocks, and houses. This guide has been prepared to assist with historical house/building research by listing the most relevant and commonly used resources available at the Archives. NOTE: The names of some Vancouver streets have changed in the past, which may affect the address that you should be researching. Elizabeth Walker s Street Names of Vancouver, available in the reading room, provides a brief history of each street in Vancouver, identifying any name changes that have occurred, and when. The book is also available online through the Vancouver Public Library. Consult this resource if you need to identify a former name of your street of interest. Water Service Records These records are used to find the date of initial and subsequent water applications, which are useful for determining the approximate date of completion of a house or other building. They also provide the name of the applicant, the legal description of the lot, and in some cases provide details on the building s use. Use the microfiche at MCR 21, arranged by address, to obtain the application number. Then refer to the actual application, which are organized numerically by application number, on MCR 26. NOTE: When removing a microfiche from the Microfilm cabinet, please insert a marker in its place. When you have finished viewing a microfiche, place it in one of the boxes on top of the microfilm cabinet do not re-file! 1. Go to the drawer of the Microfilm cabinet that contains MCR 21. Microfilm cabinet relevant drawers are labelled in the diagram

2 2. Look up the address of your building of interest. The microfiche are arranged by street name or avenue number. Streets, arranged alphabetically, are followed by avenues in numerical order Microfiche for 1333 East 20 th Avenue 3. On the microfiche, look for the application number associated with the building. Make a note of this number, as it is used to look up the water service application. If your address happens to be missing, check the microfiche before and after it in the drawer. Water service record card for 1333 East 20 th

3 4. In some cases the application number will begin with SV (South Vancouver) or PG (Point Grey); SV applications can be accessed through the South Vancouver Municipality finding aid (series 230), while PG applications are available on microfilm (MCR 55). South Vancouver finding aid If there is no prefix, the application is on microfilm under MCR 26. Each microfilm roll covers a range of applications look for the microfilm which includes your application number. MCR 26 microfilm look for your application number 5. Scroll through the microfilm until you find the applications with your application number on them. Water service records with the location of the application number marked in red

4 Fire Insurance Plans and Sectional Maps Fire insurance maps show details on individual buildings gathered for insurance purposes, including type of construction, number of storeys, positioning of building on the lot, and lot features such as the locations of driveways, oil tanks and fire hydrants. Sectional maps give an overview of areas and can be used to trace the development of a neighbourhood and to determine the legal description of lots. Please refer to our Fire Insurance Plans Reference Guide for detailed information on how to search these records. City Directories The city directories can be used to determine the approximate year a building was first erected, and the names and occupations of owners or tenants. City directories are similar to telephone books, but provide access by address as well as by name. By finding the first year your building of interest appears in the directories, you can estimate a date of construction. Working forward through subsequent directories will allow you to compile a list of property owners and/or tenants. Location of the city directories Please refer to our City Directories Reference Guide for detailed information on how to use these records.

5 Building Permit Registers The building permit registers provide information on the date of the building permit application, the applicant s name, the estimated value of the work, and other details (such as, in some cases, the architect s name). Consult the series listings in the Public Records finding aids for arrangement and location details: Vancouver ( , ) Permits and Licenses series 385 A-Z record books for are arranged by name of owner, while are arranged by permit number (i.e. chronologically) record books also contain indexes by name of owner. Point Grey ( ) Point Grey series 272 Arranged by permit number (i.e. chronologically). South Vancouver ( ) South Vancouver series arranged by legal description arranged by legal description or chronologically by permit number. NOTE: There is no source for obtaining the permit numbers; however, the legal description and approximate date of construction can be found using the water applications. Location of the building permit finding aids The Heritage Vancouver Society s Building Permits database, which includes permits between the years of 1901 and 1921, may also be a helpful resource:

6 Books, Guides and Newspaper Clippings Publications, city guides, and newspaper articles are an excellent source of information on the history, development, planning, and architecture of an area. Books can be found on the general reference shelf in the reading room, or requested from the stacks after consulting our online database, by searching within City of Vancouver Archives Library Collection. Pamphlets and newspaper clippings can be searched under general and specific terms for additional information and are available on microfiche in the reading room. Suggested books and guides include: Davis, Chuck The Greater Vancouver Book (Reading Room) Kalman et al. Exploring Vancouver (Reading Room) Kluckner, Michael Vanishing Vancouver (Reading Room) Macdonald, Bruce Vancouver: A Visual History (Reading Room) Mills and Sommer Vancouver Architecture, (NA 747 V3 M5 1975) Walker, Elizabeth Street Names of Vancouver (Reading Room) and Vancouver Building Register (3 Vol.), a ca compilation of data on the more significant buildings taken from Vancouver Public Library sources, located in the Reading Room. Photographs The Archives photograph collections contain numerous images of buildings, houses, street views, and interior shots. To find photographs on a particular address, check the database on our website (Hint: under Media, filter search results to Image ) and the two photo indexes in the Reading Room. On the left: photo card catalogue for the Major Matthews and CVA photographic collections; reproductions of the catalogue photos are in the black and red binders

7 Property Tax Records (incomplete) The Archives holds both tax assessment rolls and tax billing statements (called the tax roll in the past) for properties in the area within the current Vancouver municipal boundaries. Tax assessments document the assessed value of land and improvements (buildings, generally). Tax billing statements are the actual tax bills sent to property owners. These include assessed values, as well as an itemised list of property taxes and other levies. Both these types of records can be used to ascertain property owners and values of land and improvements in the past. Consult the Property Tax Records Finding Aid for more information about what records we have, the various records series, how to determine which records have the information you re looking for, any restrictions that might apply to the records, location of the records, and arrangement details. Please note that there are gaps in the records, the most significant being a gap for City of Vancouver assessment records. The Property Tax Records Finding Aid is available in our Reading Room; it also can be downloaded from our web site at: Location of the Property Tax Assessment finding aid