Dawson-Monteith Heritage House, Kelowna

Wood-sided Dawson-Monteith House, built in 1941 in the Cape Cod Cottage Style and located within the Abbott Street Heritage Conservation Area. The house has value as a good example of the 'Cape Cod Cottage', a style that acknowledged modernist design in a conservative way during a period of architectural change. It also has value as representing a home in a new subdivision built for a member of Kelowna's business community.The style illustrates a resolution to the dilemma faced by Canadian and American architects and designers as they chose how to react to European modernism. This approach was to simplify building-forms without entirely eliminating references to the past. The Cape Cod Cottage represents this trend well. It was popularized in the United States as a variant of the Georgian Revival and was inspired by revivals of American Colonial building, a trend that was popularized in part by the development of Colonial Williamsburg (in Virginia). Period-inspired elements include the wood clapboard siding, steep gables, and dormer windows. All this is done with simplicity of form and without any direct historical quotations, an acknowledgement of modernism.
I spent time looking into the history of Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley before I started to paint.I was impressed with the interesting styles and beauty of the old houses, when I moved to the Okanagan in 2019.