Despite a lot of Saanich being rural in nature, the municipality now boasts five heritage walking tours to take residents and history buffs on a walk down memory lane.
“We have such a huge number of heritage homes,” said Coun. Vicki Sanders, chair of the arts, culture and heritage committee, holding the district’s Heritage Register, a book filled with nearly 300 homes and buildings that are relevant to Saanich’s history. “It’s exciting. It’s been more of a challenge. We are a suburb. A lot of the properties are large and it’s a long walk.”
Saanich recently created two new heritage walking tours to highlight landmarks of significance in the Quadra/Tattersall and Prospect Lake areas. Sanders’ own home is one of 10 on the new Quadra tour.
“(The map) also points out houses that aren’t in the register, but are important to the history of the neighbourhood,” she said, standing in front of the grand Tudor revival house known as Craigmillar Lodge, or Brown Residence, at the corner of Kathleen Street and Tattersall Drive. “(The walks highlight) structures, as well as buildings.”
An example of a significant structure is the nearby stone pillars, former gateposts for Craigmillar and its former gate house on a different property.
The other three tours highlight history along the Gorge Road West and in Gordon Head.
Visit saanich.ca to download maps for the five heritage walking tours.
editor@saanichnews.com