Photo: Contributed
A house in Rutland that went up in flames under suspicious circumstances on Sunday night was more than 100 years old and featured on the Kelowna Heritage Register.
Known as the Sproul Farm House, the house was built in 1906 and is one of the few residences that has survived in the area since the early rural days.
The building was associated with the Sproul family, who were among the early pioneers and orchards of the Rutland area, and with Enoch Mugford, who was very important to the formation and operation of the Black Mountain irrigation district.
“The Sproul brothers, Samuel and Bob, illustrate how pioneers came together on the Okanagan in the 1900’s. They came to the Black Mountain region from the USA around 1893 with the ‘covered wagon’ group. Typical of the early development of the neighborhood, in late 1904 they bought part of the young orchard from John Matthew Rutland in the lower part of what is now Rutland towards Highway 97, ”according to the Kelowna City Heritage Register.
“In 1911, at the height of the orchard boom, Sam Sproul sold his orchard and residence on Lower Rutland Bank and developed his 80 acre raw land on Upper Rutland Bank on which this house stands.”
The house was built for Sproul in 1906 and sold in 1914 to Enoch Mugford, who came to the area from Vancouver and served overseas during World War I.
On his return in 1920, he helped set up the Black Mountain Irrigation District as the original trustee to improve the inadequate water supply for farmers and orchards in the Rutland region. He would later become superintendent of the district. The Mugfords lived in this house until Enoch Mugford’s death in 1969.
The condition of the house has deteriorated significantly in recent years.
The house and the neighboring property have been renovated for some time. The city currently has a proposal that a mixed-use project should retain the facade of the house and integrate it into the project.
Sproul House is the latest piece in Kelowna history to have gone up in flames in recent years. Kelowna’s historic Fleming Farmhouse burned twice in April and 2018.
The Kelowna Fire Department says the Sproul house suffered “major” damage in the fire on Sunday evening. It is not yet known if any part of it can be saved.
Photo: City of Kelowna
It has been proposed to incorporate the Sproul Farm House into a mixed-use development planned for the site
