For a glimpse of what the West End looked like before the apartment blocks, visit this handsome 1893 Queen Anne–style mansion, now a lovingly preserved museum. Designed by infamous architect Francis Rattenbury, the yesteryear, antique-studded rooms have a lived-in feel while its guided tour (included with admission) tells you all about its middle-class Roedde family residents. Look out for the cylinder record player, 250-year-old grandfather clock and the taxidermied deer heads that were hunted in Stanley Park in 1906.

　　Consider visiting on Sunday when your $8 ticket includes cookies and tea served in vintage china teacups. This is also one of Vancouver's most evocative live music venues, staging regular jazz or classical concerts (tickets $15) in its downstairs rooms. The home is in Barclay Heritage Square, a one-block site containing nine historic West End houses dating from 1890 to 1908.