Description of Historic Place

The Elite Cafe historic place is made up of a one storey commercial building, its 1950s free-standing neon sign, and its interior seating, located in Penticton, British Columbia.

Heritage Value

The Elite Cafe has historic and social value as a symbol of the origins and continuity of cafe culture on Main Street from the 1930s to the present day. The Peterson family opened the Pandora Cafe in the corner of Wade Avenue and Main Street in 1927. In 1936 they built the historic place on the current location and renamed it the Elite Cafe. It was strategically located across from the new Capital Theatre and next to Woolworths.

The Elite Cafe is the only building on Main Street to have retained its 1950s neon sign, a symbol of a past era of commercial signage. The cafe as given special dispensation to keep its large sign when other signage was removed in the 1970s, a testament to its status as a landmark on Main Street.

The interior of the cafe retains its 1950s decor of streamlined metal and vinyl booths and tables, an important survival of art modern interior decoration. The cafe was for many years at the centre of civic social life and was visited by film stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

It also has social value for its continuous use as an eating establishment with its original interior booths intact.

SOURCE: City of Penticton Files

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Elite Cafe include its:

-Free-standing neon sign
-Interior booths
-Location amongst other commercial buildings on Main Street