Winter House

The historic place is the one-and-one-half-storey, wood-frame Winter House, built in 1939 in cottage form, and located at 815 Bernard Avenue in Kelowna's North Central neighbourhood.

The Winter House is valued for its association with a long-standing member of the community and for its architecture. It also has value as one of many notable heritage buildings along the Bernard Avenue corridor east of the downtown core area.

The historic place has value for its association with Ernie Winter (1909-2002). He was born in London, England, visited Kelowna as a child in 1917, and moved here in 1932. Trained as a plumber at Vancouver Technical School, he started working in that trade as E. Winter Plumbing Ltd. About 1945, he bought Jack Galbraith's Plumbing and Heating business on Bernard Avenue, where he remained in business for fifty-four years. Winter Plumbing and Heating Ltd. is still in operation, and advertises itself as 'Kelowna's Oldest Established Shop'.

In 1939, Winter built this house for himself and his wife Sally. He lived here until about 1998.

Winter's great passion was tennis. He was local champion for years, taught many the game, and was still playing three times a week at age 86. He was a Kelowna Volunteer Firefighter for twenty years, served on City Council for fourteen years, and was a member of Kelowna Rotary for more than sixty years, spearheading the building of Pleasant Vale Homes, Kelowna's first low-cost seniors' housing development. About 1950 he organized and coordinated a charity fundraising campaign known as the Red Feather Campaign (later Community Chest, and now United Way).

The design is typical of many houses built between the world wars, one-and-one-half-storeys high with the upper floor tucked within a steep, gabled roof. A projecting gabled entrance bay faces the street.

This house has continued as a single-family residence since it was built in 1939, in contrast to many others in the neighbourhood, which have converted to commercial or multiple-residential use.

Source: City of Kelowna Planning Department

The character-defining elements of the Winter House include its:

- location on Bernard Avenue, forming part of Kelowna's North Central Neighbourhood

- residential form, scale and massing, expressed by one-and-one-half-storey height and rectangular plan

- steeply-pitched, cross-gabled roof with asphalt shingle roofing wrapping onto fascia

- painted brick chimney with exposed corbelled brick top

- second-floor fenestration with one-over-one double-hung, wood sash window and plain, medium-width wood trim

- ground-floor fenestration, with one-over-one, double-hung, wood sash windows with plain medium-width wood trim

- asymmetrical gable projection towards street, with gentle-arched covered porch

- three steps to entrance porch

- mature landscaping throughout with front yard lawn to street