31st Avenue building in Vernon housed numerous business ventures

Photo: Museum and Archives of Vernon

Four different businesses, one location. Clockwise from top left, the W.R. Megaw Motor Co. garage and machine shop, the Community Bingo Hall, the Valley First Credit Union, and now Dollarama.

How many different businesses can occupy a building over the years? If 3322 31st Avenue is any example, the answer is many.

Thanks to city assessment records and directories held in the Vernon Archives, we can trace this address back as far as 1906. At that time, the property was owned by shopkeeper W. R. Megaw. A few years later, in 1910, he built a garage on the property and named it the W.R. Megaw Motor Co. garage and machine shop. This was the first of its kind in Vernon.

By 1931, the business was known under the name Okanagan Motors Ltd. In 1936, the property was sold to Frank Boyne, who used the building as a salesroom for his auctioneering business. In the 1940s and '50s, Kineshanko Motors operated on the spot.

In 1964 and 1965, the building belonged to the City of Vernon, and from the late 1960s to early 1980s housed the MacLeods Family Shopping Centre. In the mid-1980s, the building started to be used as a Community Bingo Centre.

In 1999, the business of the day was the Valley First Credit Union. The Kindale Thrift Store later occupied the building, and most recently it has opened as a Dollarama. Such variety.

Gwyn Evans is the Head of Archives with the Museum and Archives of Vernon.