Written by Jingyu(Caterina) Mao 2022 Cohort
This week we went to the Roedde House in downtown Vancouver, and I was fascinated by the surroundings because it didn’t look like a museum but more like a home with residents. There is much greenery around the house, which is very well maintained.
Roedde house was built in 1893, and although the place we visited was renovated, it still retains many exciting objects. For example,the handwritten sheet music in the living room and the bed heating device in the parents’ room were objects I had never seen before. In the den, phonographs, typewriters and other collectibles were used by the Roedde family at that time, showing the life of the middle class in that area.
The Roedde family had six children and three Saint Bernards, and Gustav opened the first bookbinding business in Vancouver. I was impressed by their second daughter, Anna Catherine, and perhaps because she had a similar name to mine, I was drawn to the name Catherine when I walked into the girls’ room on the second floor. However, I wondered why only one bed was in the room, as three girls lived there. After learning more about it, I realized that it was typical for families with multiple children to share rooms and beds at that time. Her picture hangs on the wall in the room. She did not choose to join the bookbinding job due to her family’s influence but became a nurse.
However, at 28, Anna was tragically killed when she was mistaken for another nurse by a mentally ill man during her night shift. As a result, Gustav lost his second daughter, and they never celebrated Christmas again because Catherine was born on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, the Roedde family never used the name Anna again, as their first daughter, Anna, died eating poisonous berries at an early age.
The story of this family is recorded in Roeddes House. Compared with the current rooms, the rooms at that time were very small to keep warm. Their family was happy, and they all lived together. Visitors can see traces of their lives in the house and experience the atmosphere of late Victorian family life. This is a house full of history, and it’s worth visiting, especially in the fall.