As part of this year’s Heritage Week celebrations, the Central Okanagan Heritage Society (COHS) presented the winners of the 41st Annual Heritage Awards on Wednesday, February 19th at 7pm at the Benvoulin Heritage Church, 2279 Benvoulin Road. The awards honoured some of the outstanding heritage buildings and cultural areas that bring beauty to the Central Okanagan and the people who make it happen!
Awards were given in six categories:
Distinguished Community Service:
Beverley Kalmakoff
Beverley’s passion for heritage and the natural environment has been instrumental in her work as a past Director of Kelowna South-central Association of Neighbourhoods (KSAN) and her ongoing leadership in Kelowna Tree Protectors (KTP). After discovering the loss of at least 20% of the inner city Heritage Trees, Beverly and a group of concerned citizens created the KTP to protect the remaining heritage trees and to educate people through a signage program.
Conservation Project on a Heritage Building Currently in Non-Residential Use:
Drought Family House, 2406 Drought Road, West Kelowna
This Front-Gabled 1 1/2 Craftsman house was built in the early 1920s by Albert and Edith Drought. The craftsman form and details can be seen in the front gabled low-pitched roof, boxy shape, flared porch posts, decorative brackets, projecting side bay windows, and use of wood shingles and lap siding. Recently the house became Fire House #30, the new home of West Kelowna Fire Rescue Administration Offices. The rehabilitation of the building includes making it accessible and having a secure outside space. There are few changes to the exterior in this well-maintained building.
Continued Conservation of a Residential Building:
The Blue Heritage House, 2319 Pandosy Street, Kelowna
This house, built in c.1916, is a very good example of a Foursquare building. Its nearly square plan, hipped roof with a front-facing dormer window, a porch that extends the full width of the house, and a central entrance door are all Foursquare house elements. The house has been very well-maintained over the years and is in excellent condition.
Continued Conservation of a Residential Building:
G.L. Dore House, 379 Park Avenue, Kelowna
Built in 1920 by local contractor G.L. Dore, this stucco-clad one and one-half storey Craftsman influenced bungalow is a fine example of the vernacular expression of the Craftsman style. This influence is demonstrated by the use of distinctive triangular eave brackets, multi-paned windows and scroll-cut bargeboards. This house is in very good condition and has undergone few changes over the years.
Continued Conservation of a Non-residential Building:
Old Royal Bank Building, 262 Bernard Avenue, Kelowna
The Old Royal Building, built in 1910-11, is highly significant in the community, its architectural stature reflecting the major role of financial institutions in the development of Kelowna’s business district. It is one of the few stone buildings of the period, and was constructed using pink granite from the LeFroy Quarry at Okanagan Landing. In 1981 the building underwent a rehabilitation to become a restaurant and continues to be well-looked after as Kelly O’Bryan’s.
Conservation of a Neighbourhood, Streetscape or Cultural Landscape:
Rotary Marsh Park, 1050 Sunset Dr, Kelowna
In 1992, Rotarians John Woodworth and Art Hughes-Games conceived a plan to help Brandts Creek, the lake and give the City of Kelowna a beautiful asset. The objectives of the park was to create a marshland in the bay where the creek enters Okanagan Lake in order to use ‘settling ponds’ within the marshland to filter out debris before the water entered the lake and to create a teaching facility to show how important marshlands are to the environment. The park was opened in 1995 and has given residents and visitors to Kelowna a wonderful place to visit and to appreciate nature. This category also carries a $500 award presented by Central Okanagan Foundation.
Special Heritage Project:.
Kelowna Street Names- Their Origins, Edition
This book is a project of the Kelowna Branch of the Okanagan Historical Society. It is a much-edited and improved edition of two earlier publications about the origins of many of Kelowna and district’s street names. Several years of careful research, most of it by Bob Hayes and Margot Pridham, went into this book. It includes more information about local Indigenous people and immigrant settler non-Indigenous people (most especially women and their children). It is an excellent source of local biographical and social history.
Thank you to the Province of B.C., Central Okanagan Foundation, the City of Kelowna, and The Trophy Den for their financial support.
