Description of Historic Place

The F.W. Groves House is a one-and-one-half storey stucco-clad vernacular wood-frame cottage with a hipped roof and gabled and hipped dormers. It is situated on the south side of Park Avenue at the corner of Park and Long Streets in Kelowna's historic Abbott Street neighbourhood. The property is landscaped with mature cedar and chestnut trees and an early garage sits at the rear of the property.

Heritage Value

This heritage place is significant for its association with prominent civil engineer and surveyor Francis William Groves, who lived here from 1909 until his death in 1948. Born in Ireland in 1867, Groves studied civil engineering at the Royal College of Science in Dublin and immigrated to Canada in 1893. He worked at various jobs throughout the interior of BC, including railway surveys and the design of drainage and irrigation systems. Groves was invited to Kelowna in 1909 to design and install an irrigation system for the South Kelowna Land Company on an 800-hectare site. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he worked on irrigation engineering and domestic water projects, and remained active as a land surveyor, including work on the Kelowna Golf Course in 1925 and the Carsorso subdivision in 1947. A plaque in his honour was installed in Kelowna's city park in 1959 jointly by the Association of Professional Engineers of BC and the Engineering Institute of Canada.

Additionally, the F.W. Groves House is of heritage value for its early twentieth century vernacular architecture and contribution to the streetscape. Although larger than many of its neighbours, its massing is compatible with others on this section of Park Avenue, where the houses are of a similar style, scale and era, and all built to approximately the same setback from the street.

Source: City of Kelowna Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the F.W. Groves House include its:
- corner location, set close to the property lines
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by its one-and-one-half storey height and rectangular plan, with a substantial early rectangular side extension creating an overall T-shaped plan
- hipped roof with cross-gabled dormers on the side elevations, hipped-roof dormers on the front and rear elevations, and closed eaves
- concrete foundation, wood-frame construction, stucco cladding and cedar shingle roof
- exterior elements, such as its enclosed front entrance porch with hipped roof; enclosed rear porch with gabled roof and plain window surround trim with cornice and sill
- regular fenestration, including six-pane single-sash porch windows, single, double and triple assembly double-hung wooden-sash windows, bay window on the Long Street elevation, piano window, and fixed, square side-elevation windows with diamond pattern leaded lights
- interior elements, such as the brick fireplace with Roman arch opening
- early associated garage with clapboard siding, saltbox roof and outward-opening double doors with adjacent exterior door
- landscaped elements, such as the grassed yard and mature trees