1481 Richter St

Statement of Significance

The administration of water rights was a vital matter for the development of the southern interior, and Marshall had a high reputation.

Place Description

The historic place is the two-storey wood house built by 1914 and located at 1481 Richter Street, in Kelowna's North End neighbourhood.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the house lies primarily in its long association with a prominent family active in early governmental and educational affairs. It is also valued as a good example of straightforward house design and construction in Kelowna around the outbreak of the First World War.

This house was built in or before 1914. Its original occupant is not known, but from 1919 until 1964 it was the home of Alexander Dougal Marshall and Constance Marshall.

Alexander Marshall (1882-1964) came to Kelowna in 1919. He worked as district engineer for the B.C. Water Rights Branch, handling water rights matters 'a very important aspect of the regional agricultural economy' through the Okanagan, Similkameen, and Boundary regions, and gaining a great deal of respect. After his retirement he served as a magistrate in Kelowna from 1950 to 1956.

Constance Marshall's field was teaching. In a little room upstairs in this house she coached many young people through their High School Matriculation Exams. After Alexander Marshall's death she retired to live with relatives in England.

The cross-gable form, with an asymmetrical front porch, is a vestige of Victorian picturesque composition, but the relatively broad proportions, front gable, and deep eaves with exposed rafters are all more characteristic of the architecture of around 1910-14.

Character Defining Elements

- Location on Richter Street in Kelowna's North End neighbourhood
- Residential form, scale and massing, expressed by one-and-one-half-storey height and rectangular plan
- Medium-pitch, cross-gabled roof with exposed wood rafters beneath the deep eaves
- Entrance porch, with low-pitch roof supported by wood posts and wood balustrade
- Narrow, horizontal, wood beveled siding with wide wood trim
- 4-over-1, double-hung wood sash windows with wide, wood trim on the upper floor
- Random, mature landscaping around the site