Description of Historic Place

The historic place is the two-and-one-half-storey wood-frame Cross House, built in 1909 and located at 3652 Spiers Road in the rural East Kelowna neighbourhood.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Cross house, which has been moved from the South Central neighbourhood to East Kelowna, is derived from its diverse occupants since its construction in the early 1900s and its architectural characteristics.

The house, originally located at 202 Strathcona Avenue, is reported to have been built about 1909 by Abel Gagnon. Subsequent early owners include Richard W. Butler and George Hewson.

From 1925 to 1944 the house was owned by Elwood Lindsay Cross (1888-1948) and his wife Islay. Elwood Cross was involved with land development and fruit-growing. Trained as a land surveyor, Cross came to Kelowna from Winnipeg in 1910 to survey land in the Belgo area for the Belgo-Canadian Fruit Lands Company. Taken with the Okanagan, he purchased land in Rutland and became an orchardist. In 1914, he became the general manager of the Dominion Canners plant in Kelowna, where he oversaw canning and dehydration of vegetables and fruit. In 1923 he left Dominion Canners and started Rutland Canners Ltd., on land adjacent to his orchard. The cannery processed vegetables, especially tomatoes and juice, but it was destroyed by fire during the winter of 1938-39. After that, Cross became supervisor of the Bulman dehydrating plant at Vernon. He then built Vernon Frozen Food Lockers, although he did not live long enough to see the completion of that project.

In the 1950s (when the address had been changed to 2238 Long Street) the house was owned by Patrick J. and Mary D. O'Neil, respectively secretary-treasurer and president of Leslie's Ltd., a children's wear store at 320 Bernard Avenue.

In 1995, the house was removed from its original site to make way for the new Cancer Clinic of the Kelowna General Hospital. The building was purchased at auction by Mark Haley and relocated to his orchard in East Kelowna.

Its architectural features are unusual, and some may reflect major alterations done when the house was moved. Its roof combines gable and gambrel forms.

Source: City of Kelowna Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements fo the Cross House includes its:
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by its two-and-one-half-storey height and rectangular plan with large porch extension
- unusual roof, gable-like on one side and gambrel-shaped (i.e. double-sloped) with bell-cast eave on the other
- entrance porch with wood posts
- corbelled brick chimney
- wood-shingle wall cladding
- six-over-one and four-over-one double-hung wood-sash windows