Date: Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Location: The City of Vancouver Archives, 1150 Chestnut Street at Kits Point, 7 pm to 9 pm, doors open at 6:30 pm
Website: www.heritagevancouver.org/database

Heritage Vancouver invites you to its 125th anniversary celebration, the launch of an interactive Vancouver Building Permit Database. The database will unlock the secrets of many thousands of Vancouver’s historic buildings and make this information publicly accessible – a permanent legacy of invaluable historical information.

Join Heritage Vancouver at the City of Vancouver Archives for a dynamic “go live event” and search your favourite historic building on the database. Vancouver historian Maurice Guibord will illustrate the usefulness of the database in his talk on “the ethnically diverse nature of early Vancouver.” As well, Heritage Vancouver will feature ten historic homes from a cross section of Vancouver’s early neighbourhoods, with information on the original homeowners from the diverse countries that made up early Vancouver.

There is free Wi-Fi at the Archives and you are encouraged to bring an electronic device to search the database.

Admission is free, but pre-registration is required through Eventbrite: hvs-permits.eventbrite.com

The Project: Transcription & Online Database
One of the most frequent questions at the City of Vancouver Archives is “How old is my house?” Until now, the early building permit information for Vancouver buildings has been locked away in chronological register books, not searchable in any way. Now – finally – this relatively inaccessible source of vital information will be made freely available through the release of a long-anticipated online searchable database of these invaluable historical records. In addition to the invaluable and accurate permit information this will supply to countless building owners and researchers, it will support many different types of research into Vancouver’s history, which could include statistical research, understanding the growth of individual neighbourhoods, support for genealogical research and other types of investigation that have not yet been considered.

Visit the Heritage Vancouver website to learn more about the genesis of the building permits database project and the transcription process. You can even volunteer to help out with data entry!

Nominate Your Favourite Heritage Home
Do you have a favourite heritage home in Vancouver that was built in one of the following years?

City of Vancouver: 1901 to 1904 and 1909 to 1919

Corporation of the District of South Vancouver: 1911 to 1921 (amalgamated with Vancouver in 1929)

Corporation of Point Grey: 1912 to 1921 (amalgamated with Vancouver in 1929)

If yes, Heritage Vancouver invites you to nominate your favourite home, send us the address, any information or stories you have about the house, why you like it, and your relationship to it.

Send your nominations to info@heritagevancouver.org by November 11th, 2011.

Heritage Vancouver will select ten houses from a cross section of Vancouver’s historic neighbourhoods. The ten houses will be featured at Heritage Vancouver’s 125th anniversary celebration, the launch of the Interactive Building Permit Database, November 23rd from 7pm to 9pm at the City of Vancouver Archives. After the launch the database, photos and stories about the ten houses will be featured on Heritage Vancouver’s website.