Description of Historic Place

The historic place is the one-and-one-half-storey, wood-frame and stucco-clad Atchison House, built in 1931 in the Tudor Revival style, and located at 831 Lawrence Avenue in Kelowna's North Central neighbourhood.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Atchison House lies in its association with a series of families that participated in commercial activities in the community. It also has value for its architecture.

The owners were representative of the Kelowna community. Howard E. and Catherine S. Atchison built this house for themselves in 1931. Howard Atchison worked as a labourer and driver for the Kelowna Sawmill Co. Ltd. from the 1920s onward. He died in 1944. Reginald H. and Marjorie M. Brown bought the house at that time. They lived here until Reginald's death in 1966.

Reginald Brown graduated as a pharmacist in 1899. He moved to Kelowna in 1917 and worked in P.B. Willits' drugstore. After ten years, he left pharmacy to raise poultry, which he pursued until 1933. In 1932, he went back to work as an assistant at the Kelowna Pharmacy on Bernard Avenue, and when owner Keith Smith died of pneumonia, Brown took over, renaming it 'Brown's Prescription Pharmacy'. He operated the pharmacy until 1948, when he sold to Harold Long (Long's Super Drugs). He kept on working there and at other drugstores until he was 89 years old.

During the 1970s and 1980s, with the changing character of the neighbourhood from single-family residences to mixed use, this house was a group home for 'young girls' operated by the Kelowna Group Home Living Society.

The house has value as well as an example of the Tudor Revival style, characterized by the half-timber detailing on the upper floor. Its one-and-one-half-storey form and stucco cladding are representative of many residences built between the world wars.

Source: City of Kelowna Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Atchison House include its:
- location on Lawrence Avenue in Kelowna's North Central neighbourhood
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by its one-and-one-half-storey height and rectangular plan
- medium-pitched gabled roof, truncated at the peak, facing the street
- projecting second storey, with dark-stained contrasting half-timbered cladding, supported by wood brackets
- wood steps to the entrance porch, with two solid bulkheads and stained-wood railings
- brick chimney
- second-floor symmetrical fenestration with four-over-one, double-hung, wood sash windows and plain, wide, wood trim
- ground-floor symmetrical fenestration with four-over-one and six-over-one, double-hung, wood sash windows and plain, medium-width, wood trim
- recessed porch, with arch-shaped opening
- entrance doorway with six-panel, fixed-glazed windows and nine-panel glazed door