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Summerland’s Morton Hall was a college dorm

From 1906 to 1915, Okanagan Baptist College operated in the community
19845809_web1_191226-SUM-Historic-winter-scene_2
IN A WINTER WONDERLAND This 1910 photograph shows some of Summerland’s Okanagan College students at the base of Giant’s Head Mountain. The first classes opened on Sept. 15, 1906. The female residence of Morton Hall, opened in 1910. This building housed 40 female students and residence teachers. By 1913 to 1914, 340 students attended Okanagan College. (Photo courtesy of the Summerland Museum)

Summerland’s Okanagan Baptist College operated in the community from September, 1906 until June, 1915.

In the early 1900s, a committee began organizing classes and Rev. G. Campbell taught the first classes in the Empire Hall building. Two students were enrolled.

In the spring of 1907, construction began on Ritchie Hall and the building was completed by the fall. In 1910, Morton Hall was constructed.

READ ALSO: Summerland college operated from 1906 to 1915

READ ALSO: Summerland once had college campus

Morton Hall served as the female residence, housing 40 female students and residence teachers.

By 1913 to 1914, there were 340 students enrolled in the college.

The college closed in June, 1915 because of financial difficulties which resulted from poor economic conditions in B.C.

Morton Hall, known as the House on the Hill, was used for high school classes from 1920 to 1922. Later, it became the Somerset Inn.

In 1988, the building was moved to Penticton, where it was set up on Skaha Lake Road.

It burned down Feb. 11, 1991.

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