It’s Heritage Week (February 21 – 27, 2022) in BC! Making it the perfect time to reveal why it has been ages since I last posted anything on vanalogue. Last December my first walking tour guide book was published! Ta-da!
In October 2020, I received a partial grant from Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Yosef Wosk Publication Grant program, which set the timeline for the completion of my project. It was a hard journey that took about 14 months from start to finish.
My initial plan was to create one guide that contained five different walks — northwest, southwest, northeast, southeast, and the central Heritage Heart — for each of the distinct areas of Mount Pleasant. It was my inexperience with a self-publishing project like this that made me underestimate how much I could accomplish in one year. By the summer, I came to realize that the scope and breadth of my walking tour content increased and I had to make some adjustments.
I’ve been researching Mount Pleasant’s history for several years now (and continue to do so) so it was hard to distill all that research into one guide. The settler community of Mount Pleasant is over 140 years old; there are so many to tell! I had gathered so much great content that it became overwhelming; I had to let some things go. I came to the realization that I would have to accomplish my series of Mount Pleasant Historical Walking Tours, in stages.
The first book consists of one walking tour — the Heritage Heart of Mount Pleasant — Mount Pleasant’s main, commercial core. I’ve really tried to emphasize the “stories” of my Mount Pleasant Stories walking tour. It’s a walking tour but, I hope, also very readable as an illustrated collection of historical stories and facts.
My plan is to continue my Mount Pleasant Stories project series with the remaining 4 tours but I will need to figure out ways to help fund this self-published project. So, if you have any ideas on how I can do that, please let me know.
You can read some excerpts from my guide book in this article I wrote for Scout Magazine earlier this month.
Currently, copies of Mount Pleasant Stories are available for purchase in Mount Pleasant at Pulp Fiction Books – 2422 Main Street, R&B Brewing – 54 E 4th, and in Chinatown at Massy Books – 229 E Georgia St.
Some reviews of Mount Pleasant Stories:
“Christine Hagemoen’s MOUNT PLEASANT STORIES, a walking tour of our neighborhood only slightly currently compromised by open pit excavations, blocked-off sidewalks, huge industrial fences, drills & excavators’ steady roar, & etc. Lots of stuff in this lushly illustrated guidebook that I have never learned in 21+ years of basically living at the shop, including details about our distinctive & only slightly dilapidated premises. Recommended!” – Pulp Fiction Books, @pbvan (Instagram)
“Highly recommend! Informative AND beautiful. Looking forward to my walk with this in hand.” – Goretti, @rulesofassembly (Instagram)
“A great self-guided walking tour book! Well-written with lots of great stories!” – Janet Nicol, @JanetNicol20 (Twitter)
“We had a lot of fun road-testing Christine Hagemoen’s Mount Pleasant Stories: Historical Walking Tours this week. Christine, a researcher and photographer wrote and published her guide—the first of five walking tours in the Mount Pleasant area—last November. It’s a great mix of old and new photos, extant buildings, missing heritage, history and a few fun facts thrown in.” – Eve Lazarus, Every Place has a Story
“Great book. A must for Vancouver history lovers!” – Stephen Hui, Author of 105 Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia (Instragram)
vanalogue 
Amazing Christine! Congratulations!
Thanks so much!
I look forward to reading this!! I like the layout and writing. Congratulations!!!
Thank you very much! The layout/design is credited to Jeffery Chong, he did a fabulous job bringing it all together. I hope you enjoy it.
Hi! I live at Main and 18th and would love to connect with you about potentially using some of your images to showcase in the lobby of our building. Please connect with me at your convenience. Thanks!