Ostensibly, the core of Osoyoos' present city hall is a 1932 one room schoolhouse. Later expanded, it was further expanded in 1943 with the addition of a schoolhouse from north of the city. The then six room school was purchased by the city in 1949, renovated and repurposed as the town hall. The Osoyoos Volunteer Fire Department, established in 1947, was eventually added to the building, remaining there until 2016, at which time a second, much larger, fire hall was commissioned.
Near Main Street, just to the east of city hall, is this marker which relates the story of the Osoyoos City Hall.
Town Hall
What had been built as the district government office in 1892 was converted into the first schoolhouse with ten students in 1917. As the population of Osoyoos expanded, a larger school was required; a one-room school was built in 1932 on Main Street. A second room was added in 1934, later a third and a fourth room. In 1943 the Testalinda School, located midway between Oliver and Osoyoos, was closed and the building was moved to Osoyoos to make a six-room school. In 1949 this assemblage of school rooms was purchased by the Village of Osoyoos for $1,000 and renovated to become the Village Hall.
The volunteer Fire Department was formed in 1947 and eventually relocated to the Village Hall site. Today, the Municipal Hall, Fire Department, and Planning Department form a precinct. The vertical windows of the Town Hall still identify it as part of the old Testalinda School. In the 1970s the Town embarked on a beautification program utilizing a Spanish colonial theme. This project included the Town Hall complex, with red tile roofs unifying the buildings.
Also part of the Town Hall site, the Cenotaph commemorating the War dead was erected in 1962, a nearby plaque tells the history of Osoyoos, and a kinetic sculpture pays homage to the Okanagan First Nation of the area.
From the Historical Marker