BC Growers Packing House - Kelowna, BC
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T0SHEA
N 49° 53.498 W 119° 29.634
11U E 320877 N 5529564
The BC Growers Packing House, now known as the Laurel Packing House, is on the corner of Ellis Street and Cawston Avenue at 1304 Ellis Street.
Waymark Code: WMH0XE
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 05/03/2013
Views: 3
Now the home of the BC Orchard Industry Museum and the BC Wine Museum and VQA wine shop, the packing house was built in 1918 by Ward and Baldock for BC Growers Ltd. BC Growers was sold in 1923, at which time the building came into the possession of the Kelowna Growers Exchange. During World War II the Laurel Cooperative Union took over the building and operated it as a packing house until the 1970s. By this time the building was no longer suitable for newer, more mechanized methods of handling orchard fruit.
The first designated heritage building in Kelowna, it opened in May 1989 as the British Columbia Orchard Industry Museum, after several years of renovations. It was designated a heritage building by the City of Kelowna on January 10th, 1983.
Character defining elements (from historicplaces.ca):
The character-defining elements of the BC Growers Packing House include:
- Prominent corner location
- Two-storey red brick building with large repetitive openings on the ground floor, clerestory windows on the second floor, and a prominent north porch
- Unusual stepped parapet
- Long two-storey industrial-type wing with raised full-length shed roof
- Loading dock
- Segmental arches over the windows
- Wood-sash windows
- Wood shutters
- Prominent terrace and landscaped courtyard on the south side
KELOWNA HERITAGE REGISTER: (
visit link)
Web page at historicplaces.ca: (
visit link)