Description of Historic Place

The historic place is the one-and-one-half-storey, wood-frame William Harvey House, built in 1926 in Craftsman bungalow style, and located at 796 Bernard Avenue in Kelowna's North Central neighbourhood.

Heritage Value

The William Harvey House is valued for its historical associations for a quarter of a century with the Harvey family, and for its Craftsman architecture. It also has value as one of many notable heritage buildings along the Bernard Avenue corridor, east of the downtown core area.

The William Harvey House has architectural value as a good example of Craftsman design detailing, with an attractive elevation for the passing public. The house is one of a number of buildings that combine to form a strong heritage presence along the Bernard Avenue corridor east of the downtown core area.

The house is also valued as the residence of an early active participant in the fruit industry, Kelowna's leading industry at the time. It was built in 1926 by contractors Millar and Emslie for William (Billy) Harvey, an accountant who was secretary-treasurer of B.C. Growers Ltd. in the early 1920s. In the 1940s and 1950s it was the home of the Harveys' son and daughter-in-law, William and Florence Harvey. The younger William Harvey was a deckhand and then a purser on the BC Government Ferry between Kelowna and Westbank.

Source: City of Kelowna Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the William Harvey House include its:
- location on Bernard Avenue, forming part of Kelowna's North Central neighbourhood
- residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by one-and-one-half-storey height and rectangular plan
- Craftsman bungalow features, including the flaring gabled roof with a central gabled dormer, the broad eaves supported by wood outriggers, and the deep front porch constructed of brick
- shallow arches over the porch
- wood casement windows, with plain wide painted wood trim
- ground-floor asymmetrical fenestration with one-over-one, double-hung wood-sash windows and plain wide painted wood trim
- wide, symmetrically-placed entrance steps, with wide, solid-concrete railing
- mature side and front yard landscaping with lawn