VIDEO: Meet the second-generation tour guide bringing Gov’t House to life

A lot of people throw on a uniform before heading out the door to work, but only a rare few put on a petticoat and bustle.

Hope Van Vliet has been leading tours through Government House in Regina for the last two years, and has been regularly visiting the heritage property since she was a little girl.

“My grandmother used to make all the costumes that the staff and volunteers would wear, and she made all the little doilies. I was always here for a costume fitting or cleaning something,” Van Vliet said in an interview with 650 CKOM.

“This feels like a second home to me. It’s somewhere I just always wanted to work.”

The 22-year-old is now living out her childhood dream, working as a visitor experience host and leading costumed tours through the historic building.

Government House was built in 1891. Today the grand building houses a museum and the offices of the lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Government House stands proudly on Dewdney Avenue in Regina, surrounded by stately, well-groomed gardens. The grand structure, built in 1891, is one of the oldest buildings in the province.

It was built as a residence for the direct representative of the monarch in the area, which at the time was the lieutenant governor of the North-West Territories.

When Saskatchewan became a province in 1905, Government House became the official residence of the lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan.

The building has been used as a rehabilitation facility for veterans as well as a convalescent home over it’s century-long history.

Government House has previously been used as the official residence of the lieutenant governor, a veterans rehabilitation facility, and a convalescent home. The building was restored in 1980, bringing it back to its early 1900’s glory. (Alex Brown/650 CKOM)

A restoration was completed in 1980, bringing Government House back to its early glory.

The building now holds the office of the lieutenant governor as well as a museum that is open to the public seven days a week throughout the summer months.

At the top of every hour, staff members lead tours throughout the beautifully restored home, dressed and behaving in character of a person working at or visiting Government House in 1905.

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Van Vliet said she never tires of sharing interesting facts about Saskatchewan’s history with visitors.

“Especially newcomers to Canada or people who are from another country that are just visiting for a day or so. It’s really great to say, ‘We do have this long history here. We do have a lot of exciting, interesting stories to share, and I want you to come back and learn more,'” she said.

Her favourite room in the building is the billiards room, a space only men were allowed to visit in the past.

“I think it’s a lot of fun, especially with kids, because you’ve got these little boys that think ‘I’m a man I’d be allowed in this room’ and … absolutely not. You would not be allowed in that room,” she laughed.

Gentlemen would socialize in the billiards room while gambling, drinking and smoking, while their wives were relegated to the drawing room and their children were confined to the nursery with a governess.

Van Vliet’s favourite room in Government House is the billiards room, a room only men were allowed to enter in years past. (Alex Brown/650 CKOM)

While leading the same tour multiple times a day may seem boring to some, Van Vliet said she leans on her creativity to develop the characters she plays as she guides groups around the building.

“I like to sort of mix it up,” she said. “Sometimes I play certain characters. I play a maid some days. But they all have a full backstory. They all have a little notebook that I’ve written down everything in.”

Van Vliet and her fellow guides make up the characters they play themselves, and put a significant amount of care into every detail of their stories.

“As long as it’s someone that could have feasibly come through the house, or we have some record of someone like that being here at any point, we can go ahead and make that person a character,” she said. “We go pretty in-depth, because people ask very specific questions. They do want to test you. So they want to know siblings. They want to and over you came from, how old you are, like what your parents do for a living, all of that!”

Staff are given costumes that match the stories of their characters, pulled from a closet jam-packed with Victorian-inspired clothing. With each additional character they add to their repertoires, they receive a new costume.

“I’ve been lucky enough to go through quite a few costumes. I think this is number five for me that I have in the closet, so I get to pick what I want to wear that day,” Van Vliet explained.

Staff are given costumes that match the stories of their characters, pulled from a closet jam-packed with Victorian-inspired clothing. Many of the costumes were made by Van Vliet’s grandmother. (Alex Brown/650 CKOM)

When Government House was first built, people marvelled at the amenities within the grand structure, which included running water and electricity Looking back, it doesn’t seem quite so state-of-the-art. The running water only ran cold, only one bedroom was heated during the winter, and the sound of the toilet flushing was so loud that residents joked it could wake the dead.

While Van Vliet said she loves pretending to be a character from more than a century ago while she is at work, there are some aspects of early 1900s living she is glad to do without.

“You get all the perks of being in this grand house from 1905, but you don’t get a lot of the drawbacks,” she said.

“I still get to go on my lunch break and play on my phone and text my friends, so I get the best of both worlds. It’s a lot of fun.”

Van Vliet said one question tends to come up whenever someone finds out she works in a historic building: Has she ever seen a ghost?

“I haven’t, but I’ve heard plenty of stories. I’ve even had visitors swear they could see a ghost right in front of them,” she said, adding that she doesn’t believe the building is haunted.

“I think I’ve been here long enough where I’m like, I would have seen something. I feel like I should have seen something by now!” she laughed.

While she has never seen a paranormal apparition, Van Vliet admitted she’s been startled by a nightgown-wearing mannequin in the second floor bathroom multiple times.

“This one is in the corner and it’s kind of dark in this room,” she said. “I’ll walk past and it will give me a bit of a jump scare because I’m thinking no one’s in the museum!”

Mannequins are posed around Government House, displaying clothing from the time. Van Vliet said she is startled by the mannequins at times. (Alex Brown/650 CKOM)

Van Vliet said she takes great pride in being the second member of her family involved in sharing the history of Government House with the public, and her grandmother is thrilled to have a descendant picking up where she left off.

“Oh she loves it! Every day when I see her, she just wants to know all the details. She wants to know what I did, who I worked with and what people said, especially about the costumes and the textile exhibit we have right now,” she said.

Van Vliet proudly puts on her handmade costumes every morning, head held high as she follows in her grandmother’s footsteps and opens the door to the past.