The Laurel Packinghouse is a unique and atmospheric rental space for events such as business and corporate functions, private events such as weddings, and community events.
Thank you for contacting the Laurel Packinghouse. If you have booked an event, or are currently engaged in conversation with us about a potential event, our Laurel Enterprise Coordinator will be reaching out to you to ensure lines of communication remain open during an upcoming administrative transition.
NEW rental inquiries will be accepted starting March 1, 2023. In order to provide our existing clients with the best possible service during an upcoming administrative transition, inquiries about NEW rentals will not be accepted between Dec 1 and March 1.
We look forward to welcoming your rental inquiries and events to the Laurel Packinghouse in 2023. For more information about our rental services click here.
Hours
| Open for pre-booked events and programs | only until March 1, 2023 |
ADMISSION
Admission is by donation.
Suggested donation $5 per person/$15 per family
More to explore at
“The Laurel”
Unearth the agricultural treasures that make our region unique at the Okanagan Wine and Orchard Museum in the historic Laurel Packinghouse. Vibrantly coloured fruit crates, fierce-looking equipment and a live beehive (in season) are juxtaposed with barrels, bottles and machinery. Meet the determined people who lived the trials and triumphs of the tree fruit and wine industries. Discover how growing, processing, transporting and enjoying tree fruits and wine diversified our landscape and communities.
A historic Kelowna building
Renting the Laurel Packinghouse
Contact us to learn more about renting the Laurel Packinghouse for your event. Ask about including the back deck, Laurel Square, or museum gallery in your rental!
We continue to follow Provincial Health guidelines and will update our policy on rentals as these guidelines change.
Kelowna’s Favourite Historic Venue
The Laurel Packinghouse was built in 1917 and completed in 1918, using bricks made locally from Knox Mountain clay. At that time, what is now Kelowna’s Cultural District was packed with fruit warehouses, packinghouses, canneries, and a sawmill. Horses, boxcars, and trucks jostled for position on tracks and dirt roads.
A fire in the 1960s destroyed much of the industrial district, but the Laurel was a working packinghouse until the 1970s. When it was slated for demolition in 1982, members of the community rallied to save it, making it Kelowna’s first designated heritage building. The building was revitalized in 2010.
Okanagan Wine and Orchard Museum
Conveyors groaned with colourful fruit, and workers sorted and loaded apples, cherries, apricots, pears, peaches, and plums while the box maker built 100 fruit crates every hour. But the busiest bees in the orchard industry are still at work. “Bee” mesmerized by the activity in the live demonstration hive.
The Okanagan wine industry has boomed, bringing huge changes to our region. Learn interesting stories of wines, wineries, wine makers, entrepreneurs, and the trials and triumphs of the industry.
Kelowna Museums’ Upcoming Events and Workshops
The Hidden Story of Okanagan Black History
The Hidden Story of Okanagan Black History
How long has there been Black involvement in the Okanagan Valley? Despite being deliberately left out of historical records, Black people have been in the valley almost as long as the first settlers. Journey through the museum and find the different ways that Black peop...
The Hidden Story of Okanagan Black History
The Hidden Story of Okanagan Black History
How long has there been Black involvement in the Okanagan Valley? Despite being deliberately left out of historical records, Black people have been in the valley almost as long as the first settlers. Journey through the museum and find the different ways that Black peop...
The Hidden Story of Okanagan Black History
The Hidden Story of Okanagan Black History
How long has there been Black involvement in the Okanagan Valley? Despite being deliberately left out of historical records, Black people have been in the valley almost as long as the first settlers. Journey through the museum and find the different ways that Black peop...