An actor portraying Kelowna's founder walks the street that bears his name in a video released by the Kelowna Museum.
Image Credit: Thomas Bowerbank
May 06, 2015 - 8:28 AM
KELOWNA – If Kelowna’s founder walked the streets of Kelowna today, what would he think?
On Monday the Kelowna Museum released a video shot during Provincial Heritage Week that shows Bernard Lequime – or at least an actor portraying him – walking the street that bears his name.
Christina Neale, the museums programming coordinator, says the ad-libbed video is part of their ongoing goal to bring Kelowna’s history alive. It was filmed during the week of Feb. 14 and released to the public Monday.
“I thought, let’s do something a little bit different,” she says. “What's more fun than to try and bring the founder alive for the day?”
In the video, local actor Terry Scott is seen marveling at the recently revitalized downtown core and all the modern 'contraptions' that occupy it.
“We didn’t really script it, the only thing that was scripted was in the Pita Pit,” says Neale, who also appears in the video as Lequime's wife.
Bernard Lequime bought the land in 1893 and in 1897 built a store where the Pita Pit now sits called Lequime Brothers Store. In 1903 the original wooden building was moved and replaced with a brick building, some of which still stands today.
“If you look at the two outside walls you’ll see a white rock that’s the original stone that came from Knox Mountain,” she says.
The video was produced by Thomas Bowerbank to commemorate the 2015 Provincial Heritage theme 'Main Street: At the Heart of Our Community.'
To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015