Kettle Valley Railway Station - Penticton, BC
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member ScroogieII
N 49° 29.078 W 119° 35.641
11U E 312124 N 5484566
Though long ago decommissioned as a railway station, the Penticton KVR station still stands proud, home to Penticton's most popular pub and restaurant of the same name, the Kettle Valley Station.
Waymark Code: WM12ZZ8
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 08/17/2020
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member NW_history_buff
Views: 2
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Old photos of Southern British Columbia railway stations are plentiful and quite easy to find. The one we chose here was taken in 1942, not long after the Penticton KVR station was completed. Both it and the 2015 "now" photo were taken from the parking lot to the northeast of the station, looking southwest.

Construction on the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR) Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway was begun in 1910 as a "Coast to Kootenays" railway, the railway opening in 1915. The initial station in Penticton was built near the waterfront for easy connections with the paddlewheelers which plied the waters of Okanagan Lake at the time.

By the 1940s an industrial park and railway yards had sprung up further south in Penticton and in 1941 this station was built to be nearer the action. By that time the paddlewheelers were being phased out as highways were becoming the major mode of transportation.
The KVR was the work of Andrew McCulloch, Chief Engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway’s new line in the southern interior of British Columbia…The Kettle Valley Railway. He was hired to build the Coast-to-Kootenay connection when the fear of leaving BC’s mineral wealth vulnerable to exploitation by our neighbours reached its peak. Politicians and corporate leaders including CPR President Thomas Shaughnessy and James J Warren (the first President and originator of the whole idea of the line), stood behind the economic challenge and they moved to protect our province’s resources. The result was the building of 325 miles (500 kilometres) of rail over and through three mountain ranges. It is sad to think that progress (highways and airlines) as well as the challenges of Mother Nature (major snow in the Coquihalla) took their toll – so that by 1964, passenger service had ceased and in 1989, the last freight train rode the rails.
From the KVR
Below is a comparison of the station between its 1942 appearance and that of 2015.
Kettle Valley Railway Station
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
The Kettle Valley Railway Station is a two storey 1941 structure with a steeply pitched chalet style roof and two gabled bays at each end, the easterly one having been added in 1945. It includes a single story warehouse addition on the west side, built in 1965

HERITAGE VALUE
The Kettle Valley Railway Station is valued for its association with the transition of railway passenger business from the Penticton waterfront to the south Penticton industrial area in the 1930s and 1940s.

It is further valued as a symbol of the role of Penticton as an important division point on the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR) Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which linked the mines and smelters of the Kootenays to the coast and provided an alternative passenger service to the CPR main line. The building is also symbolic of the evolution of this area as the industrial centre of the south Okanagan, having been significantly expanded to meet demands of growth in railway traffic.

The building is also valued for its Tudor Revival style architecture, also known as "Hunt Club".

The station's survival as a public building is a reflection of its ongoing social significance as a gathering place. The building is also valued as a symbol of Penticton's interest in preserving heritage character. The neighbourhood is the only one in the city to have architectural guidelines requiring that new buildings reflect the form and character of the railway station.

CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS
- the massing of the building, reflective of the architectural style used by railway companies
- the physical layout of the building, including its large freight doors for loading and unloading goods, and its division offices on the second floor
- remnants of the original chalet style design in the centre section, including the steep pitched roof with curved overhang and prominent brackets
- half-timbering in the gable ends
- multi-light windows in the upper storey
- location adjacent to the main KVR rail line
- proximity to historic KVR roundhouse, stores buildings, yard and workshops
- 1945 additions in a style compatible with the original
From Historic Places Canada
Photo goes Here
Photo goes Here
Year photo was taken: 1942
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