Benvoulin is a neighbourhood in the City of Kelowna, British Columbia, located on the north side of Mission Creek.[1]

Benvoulin
Creek wandering across Benvoulin Wetlands
Creek wandering across Benvoulin Wetlands
Benvoulin is located in British Columbia
Benvoulin
Benvoulin
Location within British Columbia
Coordinates: 49°53′N 119°26′W / 49.883°N 119.433°W / 49.883; -119.433
Country Canada
Province British Columbia
Regional districtCentral Okanagan
CityKelowna

Name origin

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Originally named Benvoulin, Benvoulin was the name of the Scottish home of an early real estate investor in Vancouver and the Okanagan, George Grant MacKay, who first arrived in Vancouver in 1888. He bought land in what is now Benvoulin in 1891. MacKay acted as an agent for his friend Lord Aberdeen in buying Coldstream Ranch, and had investments in other Okanagan properties and property-development schemes during the early 1890s. His company built the Kalamalka Hotel at Vernon.[2]

When MacKay first laid out the town in 1891 hoping it would become the southern terminus of the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway, Benvoulin named the settlement after his home in Scotland. [3]: 20 

References

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  1. ^ BC Names entry "Benvoulin (community)"
  2. ^ [12th Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1948, citing F.M. Buckland, quote in BC Names]
  3. ^ Akrigg, G.P.V.; Akrigg, Helen B. (1986), British Columbia Place Names (3rd, 1997 ed.), Vancouver: UBC Press, ISBN 0-7748-0636-2