Old Pickers' Cabin

The heritage value of the historic place is found in its being a rare surviving agricultural workers' accommodation, with an associated privy (outhouse), vividly representing the rudimentary homes and hard lives of the workers in Kelowna's vital fruit-growing industry. It provides a strong image of the meager conditions of fruit-pickers in the heyday of the Okanagan fruit industry. The cabin is also valued for its association with a prominent citizen who was active in the fruit-growing industry and civic government affairs, and upon whose property the pickers' cabin is located.

The cabin stands beside the road. The cabin was put in place when James Stuart bought the property in 1953. It dates back at least to the 1940s and likely to the 1920s or 1930s. Note that the outhouse is constructed with boards rather than plywood, so it too is probably quite old. Very few examples of such workers' accommodation survive, because they were usually built cheaply and were usually not well maintained.

This very unprepossessing building is typical of the simple, even minimal, accommodation provided for the largely transient work force. The workers who worked in and harvested the crops of Okanagan orchards were often Aboriginal, Doukhobor, or recent immigrants, and the historic record illustrates that they were not treated generously by the mainstream society. Although the contribution of the pickers has been little acknowledged, without them the fruit industry could not have carried on, especially in the years before the urban population of Kelowna had grown sufficiently to offer a local labour pool.

This building should be noted as a counterpoint to the many houses of the wealthy and prosperous, which fill the Heritage Register. It was the labour of the people who lived in accommodations such as these that helped to create the prosperity of the Okanagan.

James A. Stuart, on whose farm this building stands, has value as one such important member of mainstream society. Born in Kelowna in 1934, he bought this forty-acre orchard in 1953 and married his wife Anna in 1955. As well as growing fruit, he served as Director of the Fruit Growers' Mutual Insurance Company for six years and was vice-president of the Board of Directors of B.C. Tree Fruits Ltd. and of Sun-Rype Products Ltd. Stuart also became involved in the wider community, serving as Director of the Central Okanagan Regional Hospital Board and of Kelowna General Hospital, among other positions. After years as an alderman, he was elected Mayor in 1986. At the second Regatta Riot in 1987 he had the rare and interesting experience of reading the Riot Act. Stuart retained the Mayoral position until 1996, when he retired from politics