Owners of beloved ramshackle house in Armstrong area digging up its history
An uninhabited dilapidated house in the Armstrong area is the subject of numerous photographs and paintings, and the newest owners of the property it sits on are digging up the history behind it.
It is the third summer since Brandy O’Kane and her family moved into a home on Pleasant Valley Road in Spallumcheen and ever since artists and history enthusiasts have shown up to view the old house at the front of her acreage and inquire about its history.
“I see them out at the end of the driveway all the time, it took a bit of getting used to, but we love to share it,” she said. “People come up to the door asking about its history, if they can buy parts of it and if they can go inside of it.”
Last week, O’Kane took to social media to ask for information on the relic’s history along with photographs and artwork. She received many comments, postings of art pieces and bits of historical information.
“The only real things I know is the previous owners lived there for a long time and used to rent the old house out but they haven’t been inside of it since the 1980s,” she said. “It’s a real conversation piece, people share stories and memories. It’s neat how it connects so many different people.”
Even the year the house was built is a question mark. One community member suggested it was built in 1917, while O’Kane found an old handmade sign on the property indicating the relic was built in 1908.
O’Kane and her husband bought the property in 2021 from an older couple who lived on the property for decades after buying it from the original owners. Prior to making the purchase, they sat for coffee with the couple who informed them the old house was a local attraction.
“They said people stop by all the time and are always out front painting, and one painting ended up in an art gallery in Vancouver,” O’Kane said.
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O’Kane said the structure is pretty beat up and there was a fire in it at one point. There are the remnants of two brick chimneys, with one being burnt and the other falling down.
“Most of the bricks are still left, we’ll try to repurpose them and make a walkway, we want to use whatever we can from it,” she said.
O’Kane doesn’t allow people to go inside the old house for safety reasons and has had a few teenagers attempt to sneak in before.
She herself has not gone into the building. The previous owners still have some things inside of it but are currently dealing with health setbacks. She hopes to follow up with them again, and plans to get a bucket lift to safely peer through the upstairs windows.
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While O’Kane hasn’t followed up with the local museum and local historians yet, she hopes to eventually piece together a historical timeline in an album to share with family and friends.
“We’re very interested in the history of the place, it’s beautiful, it was the first thing I saw when we viewed the property and I loved it right away. It’s such a nice piece of our property, we’re very attached to it and so is the community.”
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