Located in Thunderbird Park beside the Royal BC Museum, this historic home offers an intriguing glimpse back into a long-gone past. It started out as a one-story log house built in 1852 by Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken, a surgeon with the Hudson’s Bay Company, when he married the daughter of Governor Sir James Douglas. Helmcken later became the first speaker of BC’s elected assembly and was one of the negotiators who ushered the province into Confederation. As the family’s fortunes grew, so did their house. It’s not only one of the oldest houses in the province, but one of the best examples of piece-sur-piece wooden construction.