At Home with History

''At Home with History'' is a collection of real life stories that bring to life the glamorous and not-so-glamorous social histories of selected heritage homes in Greater Vancouver-stories of brothels and bootleggers, secret rooms, and Shakespearean-style murders. An Italian family survives the depression by selling booze and sandwiches from their eastside home. A Shaughnessy mansion headquarters the Klu Klux Klan and then a children''s hospice. A secret radio room is uncovered during renovations. Every home has a social history and a genealogy that tells a tremendous amount about the history of the times and offers up a sense of place. Current home-owners are only temporary custodians, part of the chain in the ongoing narrative of the house. People change, styles change, colours change, cars change, but through it all, the house remains a central fixture and the structure for the stories in ''At Home with History''. "Want to know which Shaughnessy mansion was a former Ku Klux Klan headquarters or which Strathcona house guitarist Jimi Hendrix once lived in? You''ll find the answers in ''At Home With History''. - The Vancouver Courier