Description of Historic Place

The historic place is the two-and-one-half-storey wood-frame house built around 1908 in the Foursquare style, and located at 792 Lawrence Avenue in Kelowna's North Central neighbourhood.

Heritage Value

The house at 792 Lawrence Avenue is valued as a good example of a Foursquare house. It is also valued for having accommodated a series of families who contributed to the early commercial sector of the community, and for demonstrating the changes in population density in the area, as it was converted from a single-family home to rooming-house accommodation.

This house was built around 1908 by John and Margaret Collins. They and their three children came to Kelowna in 1905 from their farm in Ireland, with a short stop in Didsbury, Alberta. John Collins worked in the local orchards and as a gardener. In 1910, the Collins family moved to Vancouver.

The house is a fine example of a largely unaltered Foursquare house. It is typical of the manner, two-and-one-half storeys high, somewhat square in plan, with a hipped roof penetrated by dormer windows and a broad porch. The house is in a mature landscape setting.

In 1933, the house was owned by K. MacLaren. He was probably the Kenneth MacLaren who was listed as 'farmer' in 1913, in 1922 as 'of Weld Maclaren & Co. Ltd.', in 1924 as 'of Mabee-McLaren' (an auto dealership), and in 1936 as 'retired'. He was secretary-treasurer of the Kelowna Golf Club when it was formed.

By 1940, R.P. and J.W. Hughes owned the house. Shoemaker Rudolph H. Blanke and his wife Helen Blanke rented it in 1948. In 1956 it was owned and occupied by Carl W. and Sylvia Schmock. He was an accountant at the Kelowna Courier newspaper.

In 1964 the building was licensed for five rental rooms. Like so many houses in this North Central neighbourhood, it was converted from single-family to multiple-family use. This property represents the densification of this inner-city neighbourhood in the later twentieth century.

Source: City of Kelowna Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the house at 792 Lawrence Avenue include its:
- location on Lawrence Avenue, in Kelowna's North Central neighbourhood
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by its two-and-one-half-storey height and squarish plan
- medium-pitched hipped roof
- small dormer facing the street
- low-pitched roof over the large entrance porch, with oversized wood columns, wood balustrades, and handrails
- asymmetrically-placed steps to the entrance porch
- symmetrical fenestration on the second floor, with one-over-one, double-hung wood-sash windows and plain wood trim
- ground floor fenestration, with one-over-one, double-hung, wood-sash windows and plain wood trim
- brick chimney
- mature trees in front and side yards, with a lawn to the street