Description of Historic Place

The historic place is a two-storey, wood-frame house built in 1906, and located at 825 Lawrence Avenue in Kelowna's North Central neighbourhood.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the house at 825 Lawrence Avenue lies in its association with a prominent pioneer in the newly incorporated Kelowna community. The historic place also has value as a good example of a gable-front house constructed in the early 20th century.

The house was built in 1906 by Arthur O. Brunette, chief mechanic for David Leckie's hardware store from about 1905 through the 1920s. Brunette built a 'water tube boiler' in 1907 for L.A. Hayman's Westbank ferry 'Clovely', and in 1911 he wired and helped build the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. He also ordered the stations and stained-glass windows, and Mrs. Brunette organized the first Bazaar to buy the pews. In the 1930s, Brunette was partner (with G.S. Sexsmith) in the Kelowna Machine Shop on Lawrence Avenue. He died in 1937.

The architecture is representative of the gable-front house, a popular vernacular house form at the time. Two storeys high with a gabled attic, the clarity of its form has been obscured somewhat by later additions and alterations (in 1956 and 1972), although they have acquired a certain heritage character of their own over the years.

Among the residents after Brunette's death were Walter O. and Ruth I. Clark, who lived here in 1948. Walter Clark was chief clerk at the Bank of Montreal. In 1956, it was owned by William and Donalda Sass; the former was a construction foreman.

Source: City of Kelowna Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the house at 825 Lawrence Avenue include its:
- location on Lawrence Avenue in Kelowna's North Central neighbourhood
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by its two-storey height and rectangular plan with extensions
- prominent gable over the second floor, with deep eaves supported by wood brackets
- fascia band beneath the gable
- horizontal wood siding
- wide wood bargeboards, which wrap around most of the house perimeter
- one-over-one, double-hung, wood-sash windows on the ground and upper floor, with wide, plain and decorative wood trim
- mature side yard landscaping, with front yard lawn to street and large walk and driveway