The 1930s Archives | Applebox Belles: The Women of Lake Country’s Packinghouses

Westbury Hotel

Many of the summer girls boarded at the Westbury Hotel.

Doris Gleed, 1930s

Doris Gleed rides her bicycle past the Okanagan Centre packinghouse.

Winfield packinghouse, 1930s

The railway line ran in front of the Winfield packinghouse.

Inez Kenney with three other belles at the Oyama packinghouse

Applebox belles at the Vernon Fruit Union packinghouse, Oyama, 1937. Inez is the second woman from the right.

Effie Smith, Alice Draper, Winnie Draper, Mary Draper, Winfield 1937

Applebox belles on their day off.

Okanagan Centre, 1930s

Gleed’s Store in Okanagan Centre during the Depression.

Nora Carter, 1936

Nora Carter at the Okanagan Centre packinghouse, age fourteen.

Inez Patterson Kenney

Inez Patterson Kenney Photo montage. Narrated by Bill Kenney, December 12th, 2015 Inez Patterson was born in 1917 in Manitoba. After moving first to Burnaby, BC, her family […]

Ivy Malpass Fallow

Ivy Malpass Fallow Photo montage. Narrated by Herb Fallow, November 13th, 2015 Ivy Malpass was born in 1907 in Lansdowne, BC. As a teenager, she worked at the […]

Okanagan Valley Land Company sorters, 1937

The sorters of the Okanagan Valley Land Company packinghouse, Okanagan Centre, 1937. Left to right: Back row: unknown, unknown, unknown, Ted Nuyens, unknown, Pam Wentworth Front row: Nellie […]

Winnie Draper and Alice Draper, Winfield, 1937

“We used to get 3¢ a pack. Now they wouldn’t even put one apple in for 3¢. Well, in those days, they were the big apple boxes and […]

Vernon Fruit Union packinghouse, Oyama, 1931

The first attempt to unionize packinghouse workers took place in the 1930s but was unsuccessful due to the surplus of available workers.