Don Weixl Photography

This gracious bit of Old Country architecture has many stories to tell. Captain James Dun-Waters built the one storey Manor House between 1910 and 1911, for his first wife, Alice. Granite for the 22-inch thick walls came from the cliff behind the house. All other materials, plus the beautiful antiques with which they furnished the home, were brought across Canada by train, down Okanagan Lake by sternwheeler and carted to the site.

In 1924, the Captain decided to add an impressive trophy room to the south side of the house. Its special feature was a stone grotto or cave, built to showcase the huge Kodiak bear he’d shot and had mounted. While construction was underway, Alice, the love of Dun-Waters’ life, died. A month and a half later, this version of the Manor House died, too. It burned down to the stone foundations.

click to enlarge photos

Photos courtesy of Lynda Miller

Dun-Waters immediately rebuilt the house on the same stone foundations. This meant the floor plan was basically the same. He refurnished it with more antiques brought over from Britain and moved in, in November 1924, with Katie and Geordie Stuart for company. He lived there the rest of his life.

Before he died, Dun-Waters “sold” Fintry (for one dollar) to Fairbridge Farm Schools, an English philanthropic organization that sent orphans from the streets to the “Colonies” where they could learn to be farmers and earn a living for themselves. Students took their basic education at the Canadian Fairbridge School in Duncan, BC, but in the summer months, they came to Fintry, putting their knowledge into practice, by running the orchards and taking care of the prize Ayrshire herd.

When the school closed, new owners tried to turn Fintry into a resort, but it was too remote to be a success. For a few brief times, the estate was deserted. At other times owners lived in the Manor House. The most recent landlord, Art Bailey, added 7 bedrooms with attached bathrooms in the attic. Now, Friends of Fintry are trying to take it back to its origins - to restore it to the Dun-Waters Era.

Friends of Fintry
PROVINCIAL PARK SOCIETY

7655 Fintry Delta Rd. Kelowna, BC V1Z 3B2

Phone: (250) 542-4031
E-mail: info@fintry.ca