The Revelstoke Museum and Archives has several events planned for B.C. Heritage Week 2012.
The annual heritage home awards will be officially presented at a Feb. 25, 11 a.m. ceremony at the museum. The awards are selected in a number of categories by the city’s Heritage Advisory Committee. They include categories such as renovations and new homes.
Revelstoke Museum & Archives curator Cathy English, staff and volunteers will also be conducting a day-long special research event on Feb. 25. Homeowners will be able to bring in basic details about their heritage homes and staff will explore the archives to find out details about the home. Documents can show homeowners when the home was built, who built it, the original design, and also some architectural details that may have been lost in subsequent renovations. There’s a decade-long gap in the building records in the 1950s. “Luckily, we’ve got going back to 1900,” English said.
Bring your lot and block number to aid the search, but, “If you can locate your property on a fire insurance map, then we can still find it,” English says.
The drop-in session runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
City of Revelstoke planning staff and members of the heritage committee will also be hosting a public awareness event at the museum on the 25th, designed to reintroduce the Heritage Maintenance Standards bylaw. After stiff opposition in late 2011 from residents who criticized the law as arbitrary and draconian, council instructed staff to revise it and improve public communication on the plan. This is a first step. The event takes place at the museum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
On Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. English will be giving a presentation on the history of skiing in Revelstoke. I took in this talk a couple of years ago, and it’s a must for anyone interested in skiing, especially backcountry. Some of the feats are legendary.
On Feb. 14, curator English presented her annual report on the museum to city council. She noted record visitor numbers and record attendance at some events. There were 8,519 visitors last fiscal year, 7 museum events, 13 talks and guided tours, 21 Brown Bag History sessions, 150 participants in the Heritage Explorers Children’s Program and 75 in a pre-teens camp.
25 volunteers contributed 1,000 hours of volunteer service that year.
English also noted the recent renovation of the archives room on the second storey, including her office, “With probably one of the best views in town,” English noted.”
The museum is also transferring archival newspapers from microfilm to digital files, which will allow them to be searchable via computer.
In her presentation, English made a budget request of $60,000, which was up by $5,000 from previous years.