How old is my house?

Property queries are common from researchers at the South Canterbury Museum.

If yours is one of a relatively small handful of well-known and previously researched grand homes or notable buildings, we can help. Frustratingly though, we more often don’t actually have the answers. But we often can point people in the right direction.

So to help those who want to know how old their house is, or what their neighbourhood looked like years ago, the museum has produced a new research guide to property resources. Many of these resources provide quick and easy access to information about property ownership, or give an idea what your neighbourhood once looked like.

An awesome collaboration produced by councils across the region, called Canterbury Maps, is one great example. Containing current and historic aerial imagery back to the 1930s you can simply punch in your address and use a historic slider to see what your area once looked like. People owning homes in the west end of town towards Gleniti for example can see how farmland once dominated areas that have since been filled in by increasingly dense residential development.

If, instead, you wanted to know who once owned or lived in your house, the guide offers several suggestions for places you can find that information. Historic titles are relatively cheap and fast to access, while rate rolls, valuation records, or electoral rolls can also provide great information – but may take a little more effort or time.

This new research guide is now available as a PDF on the ‘‘Research’’ pages of the museum’s website. If you’ve got a question or wondered about your property, visit the website at museum. timaru.govt.nz/research and check it out.