Mallam Barn
Place Description
Mallam Barn is located on the Summerhill Estate Winery in the Okanagan Mission area of Kelowna. The two-storey barn features a steep dual-pitched gambrel roof, a hayloft entryway with hay hood, and wooden plank siding. Located uphill from Chute Lake Road with spectacular views of Okanagan Lake, the barn is associated with a two-storey log house, a root cellar and a small ravine where Rembler Creek runs through.
Heritage Value
The Mallam Barn is valued as an extant early agricultural outbuilding that reflects the beginnings of farming at the south end of Okanagan Mission. Many of Kelowna’s barns have been lost due to the decline in traditional agricultural production, modern industrial and residential development, and general neglect, combined with the loss of their original agricultural context to wineries, and this barn stands as a rare reminder of Kelowna’s early agricultural origins. Built in the early 1900s, the barn was owned by Henry Cecil Mallam (1885-1967), who emigrated from England in 1903. In 1906, he married Giffortina Matilda Thomson (1878-1976), who was from a neighbouring pioneer family who moved to Okanagan Mission in 1892. This farm was purchased from A. ‘Gus’ Anderson in 1904. Anderson had pre-empted the land and built the two-storey log house on the property in 1900 The Mallams, who were fruit and dairy farmers, keen sportspeople and active in community affairs, lived here until their nearby new house was completed in 1910.
The Mallam Barn and adjacent pioneer home remain as a tangible reminder of the importance of Kelowna’s prosperous agricultural foundation. The barn is an early example of a utilitarian outbuilding that supported agricultural activity. With its two-storey rectangular plan and steep dual-pitched gambrel roof with a hay hood over the second-storey doorway, the barn was designed for the loose-baled hay system in use at the time, which required open storage in the hayloft on the upper floor.
Character Defining Elements
Key elements that define the heritage character of the Mallam Barn include its:
- location uphill from Chute Lake Road, adjacent to Rembler Creek, with views of Okanagan Lake, in the Okanagan Mission area
- association with contemporaneous buildings in an agricultural setting including a two-storey log house and a root cellar
- agricultural vernacular form, scale and massing as expressed by its: two-storey height with upper floor hayloft; rectangular plan; steep dual-pitch gambrel roof; and hay hood at hayloft
- wood-frame construction with heavy timber structural framing and horizontal wooden plank siding
