City expected to affirm church’s signficance

A park, a home, and a hall were expected to receive protected heritage status at a Kelowna city council meeting on Tuesday evening.

Members of the Central Okanagan Heritage Society hoped the designation would be granted to buildings and land at the Benvoulin Heritage Park.

Only the church, built in 1892 and restored in the early 1980s, had heritage status. It is the “last significant vestige of the failed Benvoulin townsite,” a report to council states.

In the late 1800s, real estate developer G.G. Mackay hoped land he owned in the area would become the main population site as settlers arrived in the Okanagan. But most development took place further west, on the shore of Okanagan Lake, in what is now downtown Kelowna.

Mackay’s ambitious urbanization hopes for the Benvoulin district faded away, with the area instead becoming a farming district. The Benvoulin Church, long closed and in poor condition by 1982, was slated to be burned down by the Kelowna fire department in a training exercise.

But a group of people interested in preserving old buildings created the

Central Okanagan Heritage Society and raised money for the church’s preservation. It’s used for community and private events.

In 2000, a small hall was added to the church.

But the hall, as well as a farmhouse built in 1904 and 1.2 acres of land surrounding the church, were never formally included in the heritage designation area.

Expanding the protected heritage area will help the society access municipal grants for the continued preservation of the hall and old farmhouse. Properties with the heritage designation qualify for restoration grants of up to $12,500 every three years.

Special to The Daily Courier The Benvoulin Church has protected heritage status and Kelowna city council was expected Tuesday to extend the designation to include a hall, left, built in 2000, as well as a 1904 farmhouse and garden also located on the site.