The Roedde House Museum is a late-

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

home located at 1415 Barclay Street in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Canada. It was the home of Gustav Roedde and his family. The house was built in 1893 and was allegedly designed by architect

Francis Rattenbury Francis Mawson Rattenbury (11 October 1867 – 28 March 1935) was a British architect although most of his career was spent in British Columbia, Canada, where he designed the province's legislative building among other public commissions. Divorc ...

in the

Queen Anne Revival The Queen Anne style of British architecture refers to either the English Baroque architecture of the time of Queen Anne (who reigned from 1702 to 1714) or the British Queen Anne Revival form that became popular during the last quarter of the ...

style. After having been a rooming house for years, the house was restored and refurnished in the 1980s and has been open to the public as a museum since 1990.

History

Roedde's family home

Gustav Roedde (1860-1930) emigrated from Grossbodungen, Germany to

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, US in 1882 where he completed his apprenticeship as a

bookbinder Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...

. During a Halloween party, he met Matilda Cassebohm (1862-1951), who emigrated from the island of

Helgoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possessions ...

, Germany. The two were married in

in 1883. Together they lived in different cities;

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, British Columbia, before settling down in

, British Columbia in 1888. Gustav Roedde's bookbindery blossomed along with Vancouver's quick development. His skills, such as the

paper marbling Paper marbling is a method of aqueous surface design, which can produce patterns similar to smooth marble or other kinds of stone. The patterns are the result of color floated on either plain water or a viscous solution known as size, and then ca ...

technique, made him a successful businessman. The company continues to operate as G.A. Roedde Printers under new ownership. Roedde's family home was completed in 1893. The house's alleged architect,

(1867-1935), was an ambitious English immigrant. He also designed The Empress Hotel and Vancouver's 1910 provincial courthouse (currently the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...

). The Roedde House's asymmetrical plans, verandas and turret are all features of the

style. Both the interior and exterior of the house are made of cedar and fir, due to the cheap availability of lumber at the time. The family grew to include seven children and three St. Bernard dogs. The family's first born, Anna Henrietta died at age four after eating poisoned berries. When

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

began, the sons Walter Herman Widemann (adopted) and William August travelled to Europe to fight for the

British army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

and returned safely. During that time, daughter Emma Cather moved back to the Roedde House with her two daughters, Emma Gwendolyn and Kathleen Frances. Stories have been passed down, that the children used to play in the upstairs storage room to hear the adults’ conversations on the lower floor. In 1925, daughter Anna Catherine was killed at age 28, while on duty as a nurse at the

Vancouver General Hospital Vancouver General Hospital (locally known as VGH, or Vancouver General) is a medical facility located in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the largest facility in the Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre (VHHSC) group of medical faciliti ...

. During the same year, the family moved to a new home on Drummond Drive, in

Point Grey Point Grey ( Squamish: Elḵsn) is a headland marking the southern entrance to English Bay and Burrard Inlet. The headland is the site of Wreck Beach, Tower Beach, Point Grey Beach and most notably, since 1925, on its top is the Point Grey Campu ...

Preservation and museum

In the late 1970s, the house was at risk of being demolished. The Community of Arts Council of Vancouver urged that the building not be torn down due to its historical significance. They succeeded and the house was designated a “Class A Heritage Building” in 1976, which meant that the house could not be moved, nor the exterior walls changed. The City of Vancouver restored the exterior of the house. In 1984, the Roedde House Preservation Society was formed to implement the interior restoration. Historical records were used to insure the house replicated what it would have looked like between 1893 and 1925. Stripping down wallpaper helped discover the original colours of the walls and the house was furnished with all the accoutrements of middle-class life in the 1890s. On May 12, 1990, the Roedde House Museum was officially opened by then-Mayor

Gordon Campbell Gordon Muir Campbell, (born January 12, 1948) is a retired Canadian diplomat and politician who was the 35th mayor of Vancouver from 1986 to 1993 and the 34th premier of British Columbia from 2001 to 2011. He was the leader of the British Co ...

Museum operations

The museum's collection of over 2,700 artifacts includes furniture, clothing, books and household items; some of which were owned by the Roedde family. Highlights include, the George III

longcase clock A grandfather clock (also a longcase clock, tall-case clock, grandfather's clock, or floor clock) is a tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock with the pendulum held inside the tower or waist of the case. Clocks of this style are common ...

manufactured in 1775, the upright

Steinway piano Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

dated 1893 and other interesting items like the

stereoscope A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image. A typical stereoscope provides each eye with a lens that makes the ima ...

, the chestnut roaster and the universal bread maker. In addition to guided tours, the museum features Classical and Jazz Concert series. On Sunday Tea and Tour, the museum serves the “Roedde House Blend”, made especially by the Metropolitan Tea Company for the Museum.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control History of Vancouver Museums in Vancouver Historic house museums in British Columbia