T.E. Handlen
Place Description
The historic place is the one-and-one-half-storey wood-frame Handlen House built around 1930, and located at 780 DeHart Avenue in Kelowna's South Central neighbourhood.
Heritage Value
The heritage value of the Handlen House is seen in its being a good example of an architectural type built in Kelowna during the inter-war period, as well as in its association with the Handlen family as long-standing occupants.
The house was likely built around 1930, although its exact date of construction is not known. The earliest known owners were Thomas E. and Margaret H. Handlen, who moved to this address in 1940 and lived here until at least 1968. Thomas Handlen worked during the 1920s as a warehouseman for Johnson Coal Company and Campbell Coal Company. After active service during WWII, at the time he lived in the historic place, he was employed in Kelowna's significant fruit industry, as packing foreman and then superintendent at Kelowna Growers Exchange.
The house is representative of the simple, 1.5-storey, stucco-clad residences built between the two world wars. The entry into the full-height ground floor is marked by a gabled porch, while a second storey is tucked within the gabled roof.
Character Defining Elements
- Location on DeHart Avenue in Kelowna's South Central neighbourhood
- Residential form, scale and massing, as expressed by one-and-one-half-storey height and rectangular plan
- Medium-pitch gabled roof
- Projecting medium-pitched gabled dormer facing street
- Projecting, partially enclosed porch, with a medium-pitch gable, with three arched openings
- Asymmetrical fenestration on the second floor, with 4 single-pane wood windows with medium-width wood trim
- Symmetrical wood fenestration on the ground floor, whose form is 2-over-1 and 4-over-1, double-hung, wood sash, and fixed center window, with 4-over-1 fixed-panes and curved-arch mullion
- Mature trees throughout the property, particularly in the side yards
