Description of Historic Place

The historic place is the one-and-one-half-storey wood-frame Sproul Farm House, built in 1906, and located at 180 Highway 33 East in Kelowna's Rutland neighbourhood.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Sproul Farm House lies in its being one of the few residences remaining in the area from the early rural period. While the newly-incorporated City of Kelowna was actively growing, the surrounding areas remained rural in character and provided much of the fruit-growing land in the region. At the time of construction, and until 1973, Rutland was not yet part of the City of Kelowna.

This building is also valued through its association with the Sproul family, who were among the early pioneers and orchardists of the Rutland area. The house is also associated with Enoch Mugford, who was very important in the formation and operation of the Black Mountain Irrigation District, which continues to the present time as a major supplier of water to the citizens of Kelowna.

The Sproul brothers, Samuel and Bob, illustrate how pioneers converged on the Okanagan in the years around 1900. They came to the Black Mountain area from the United States in about 1893. Typical of the early development of the neighbourhood, in late 1904 they bought part of the young orchard of John Matthew Rutland, in the lower portion of what is now Rutland, towards Highway 97. In 1911, at the height of the orchard boom, Sam Sproul sold his orchard and residence on the lower Rutland bench and proceeded to develop his 80 acres of raw land on the upper Rutland bench, on which this house stands.

The house was erected around 1906. It was built for Sproul by M.J. Curts, a prominent local builder. Its form is representative of the straightforward, vernacular farmhouses of the day, one-and-one-half storeys high with a gabled roof facing the street, gabled dormers on the side, and a broad porch.

Sam Sproul sold the house and the orchard in 1914 to Enoch Mugford (1880-1969). Mugford arrived from Vancouver in that year with his wife and family, then went overseas with the Canadian Forestry Corps in World War I. On his return, he became involved in the organization of the Black Mountain Irrigation District (BMID), set up in 1920 to improve the inadequate supply of water for the farmers and orchardists in the Rutland area. He served as one of the original trustees. In 1922, he resigned as a trustee of BMID and accepted the position of Superintendent, which he held for twenty-eight years until he retired in 1950. Mugford Creek, near the BMID's Belgo Dam, is named for him.

Enoch Mugford also participated in community affairs. He was active in the Mountainview Methodist Church in Rutland, and held the position of superintendent of the Sunday School when the original church was destroyed by fire in 1925. Curiously, he also drew up the plans for St. Aidan's Anglican Church, built in 1933.

The Mugfords resided in this house until Enoch Mugford's death in 1969. By 1971, the house had been converted to commercial use, illustrating the business development of 'downtown' Rutland, as the office of H.R. Funk's excavating firm.

Source: City of Kelowna Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Sproul Farm House include its:
- mature trees in front and side yards
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by its one-and-one-half-storey height and rectangular plan
- medium-pitched gabled roof with two secondary cross-gables
- street elevation has full-width open porch with repetitive, evenly-spaced painted wood columns
- corbelled brick chimney
- narrow V-joint horizontal wood siding
- wood shingles in upper part of main gables
- one-over-one double-hung wood-sash windows on the upper floor, with plain wood trim