Annie Stirling House

The Anne Stirling House is valued in part for its association with the two prominent families in the community, the Stirlings and the McLarens, and also for the well-preserved fusion of the Tudor Revival and Arts and Crafts styles and for having been built during the first major development phase after the City of Kelowna's incorporation in 1905.

This substantial house was built around 1910 for Anna Stirling (born 1837), the widow of Thomas Mayne Stirling of Muiravonside, Scotland, and the mother of Thomas Willing Stirling, a prominent Kelowna fruit-grower and investor. At that time T.W. Stirlings recently built home, Cadder House (see 2124 Pandosy Street), and this house occupied the corners of a block. The adjacent cross-street, Glenwood Avenue, and the other nearby houses are all more recent insertions. The Stirlings left their mark on Kelowna and then returned to Scotland. Anna Stirling probably went back to Scotland shortly after 1913, when her son returned to Britain for military service during WWI, and certainly by the time he re-settled in Scotland in 1921. By 1924 the house was owned by Kenneth McLaren and Bessie McLaren, since they added a sunroom, built by prominent contractor J. Curts, in that year. The McLaren family, who were in the lumber business, occupied the residence until the 1950s.

The house also has significance for having been preserved under the terms of a Heritage Revitalization Agreement, which was executed in 2002.

The historic place also has value for its architectural prominence and design. The large, two-storey house has the ornamental wood strips characteristic of the Tudor Revival style (in Tudor times the timbers were structural), but also the greater simplicity and emphasis on form characteristic of the Arts and Crafts style. The original form is clear visible, despite minor alterations and additions.