Packing houses were one of the most important business enterprises in all of the Okanagan Valley, at it became a fruit growing area immediately upon its being settled. Every town, city and village had at least one packing house. Penticton had several, testifying to the acreage planted to orchard in the vicinity and the fact that, until three decades later, it was the southern terminus of the Kettle Valley Railway.
PACKINGHOUSE ROW
In 1911, Lakeshore Drive from Martin Street east towards Penticton Creek had half a dozen independent packing houses serving the young orchards around the bench lands. The J.H. McWatters building was removed to South Penticton to become the first railway station at that end of town. The others were removed to make way for larger and more efficient cold storage buildings that occupied this site until the mid sixties.
This area also housed Slade and Stewart, KVR freight sheds, plus Penty's Feed and Supplies operations. Later Kettle Valley railway tracks passed behind these buildings to cross over the creek to the CNR rail yards.
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