Irving House is the finest Victorian residence in British Columbia still open to the public — a 14-room Italianate home built in 1865 for Captain William Irving, who made his fortune running steamboats on the Fraser River. The house has been preserved and restored to its 1880s appearance, with original furnishings, period decorations, and interpretive displays on the Irving family and on New Westminster's role as the first capital of the colony of British Columbia.
The adjacent New Westminster Museum covers the city's history from Indigenous settlement through the colonial period to the present. Together they make an absorbing half-day for anyone interested in the early history of the province. Open Wednesday through Sunday, May through September.