The little grey Bassett House, which today houses the Museum, was ordered from the
T. Eaton and Company catalogue in 1906 by the pioneer Bassett family, who operated a freight and stagecoach company in the area. Arriving in prefabricated kit form at the north end of Okanagan Lake by rail, the house crossed the lake from Vernon to Penticton on a stern wheeler and was carried the rest of the way to Okanagan Falls by horse drawn wagon.
Since taking the house over in 1983, the Okanagan Falls Heritage & Museum Society has received a few grants over the years to help in restoration of the Bassett House, the most recent coming in February of 2012, when the Heritage Museum Society received 2 grants for $3000 each.
Since its opening in 1984, the Bassett House Museum has been open more or less regularly. The house has been filled with artefacts and paraphernalia germane to the period in which the house was built, which was before 1910. Some of the furnishings may have belonged to the Bassett family, though we cannot say that with any degree of certainty. The Okanagan Falls Heritage & Museum Society has only a Facebook page, so information on the museum is scarce.
Beside the museum, across the parking lot, is a gift shop and second hand store, for those who love "
second hand gifts"
On the grounds is a historical marker that relates a bit of the story of the building, which reads as follows:
THE BASSETT HOUSE IS A "READY MADE" OR "KIT" HOUSE PURCHASED FROM EATON'S IN THE EARLY 1900'S BY RICHARD BASSETT. IT WAS BROUGHT HERE BY TRAIN, PADDLE-WHEELER AND HORSE TEAM. THE BASSETT FAMILY WAS PROMINENT AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY IN THE STAGECOACH AND FREIGHT BUSINESS THROUGHOUT THE SOUTH OKANAGAN. THE HOUSE RETAINS A HIGH DEGREE OF ORIGINAL MATERIAL AND HAS BEEN FURNISHED TO INTERPRET FRONTIER LIFE.
THE OKANAGAN FALLS HERITAGE & MUSEUM SOCIETY SPEARHEADED THE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF HERITAGE PLACE SINCE 1983.