Old Royal Bank

The Old Royal Building is highly significant in the community, its architectural stature reflecting the major role of financial institutions, including those, such as the Royal Bank, from Eastern Canada, in the development of Kelowna's business district. The Royal Bank of Canada, the building's first occupant, has been associated with the growth of Kelowna from its early days to the present. The historic place represents the first stage of development in this, the western end of Downtown, which was originally the City's financial centre; and it also illustrates the area's recent transition to a leisure-oriented district. It remains one of the most imposing among the cluster of historic structures at the waterfront end of Bernard Avenue.

The solidity and restrained classical detail of this impressive stone building represents the economic expectations and the confidence in financial growth of Kelowna's boom era in the years before the First World War. One of relatively few stone buildings of the period, it was constructed in 1910-11 of pink granite from the LeFroy Quarry at Okanagan Landing.

The Royal Bank was the second bank to set up in Kelowna. It had operated since 1907 in the old wood-frame first Lequime store, across Bernard Avenue. This corner lot at Mill Avenue and Bernard Avenue became available when the Kelowna Sawmill Company relocated from the north side of Bernard Avenue to beyond Mill Avenue (renamed Queensway about 1952 in honour of Her Majesty Elizabeth II), turning an industrial area into a commercial one. The site was highly prized as long as the city's focal point for transportation was the nearby steamer landing on Lake Okanagan.

The Royal Bank remained at this location until the 1960s, when Montreal Trust, another national financial institution, became the new occupant. As Kelowna's financial and office centre shifted further east in the Downtown core, the building was adapted in 1981 to become a restaurant. It has operated as a restaurant since then under various names, currently as Kelly O'Bryan's.