Vernon residents remember beloved party house from years past  

A beloved old house known by long-time Vernonites as Hydro House was once a place for the community to gather and later the place to go for giant New Year’s Eve parties.

The stunning three-storey wooden house was originally built near a sawmill on Kalamalka Lake Road where Polson Place Mall now stands. The owners dragged the house further up the road in the early 1970s across from the BC Hydro building where it sat on a sizeable chunk of farmland for decades.

John Morrison grew up in Vernon in the 1960s and 70s and spent a lot of time at Hydro House. His dad had a shop nearby and over the years, Morrison would deliver newspapers to the house or be there chopping firewood and doing yard work.

“That house originally was owned by Johnny and Deanna Toperchuk, it was an old, old house, that’s for damn sure,” he said. “Johnny was a character and so was his dad. Johnny owned land through to the back of the Vernon golf course, he was farming all that property.

“He was my scout leader for years so we’d have scout meetings there and we’d meet for camps, they were great people.”

Morrison said the house was a community hub back in the day with a lot of agricultural work going on around it. During that time much of Vernon was covered with orchards and cattle.

The big house had decks, patios and a tall stone chimney.

“It was all wood floors, wood everywhere inside with old wood doors,” Morrison said. “There are a lot of old homes like that in Vernon. They have wooden walls coming out of the floors to segregate the great rooms.“

The owners sold the house and bought a ranch near Swan Lake.

Throughout the 1980s Hydro House under new owners became known as the place to be for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Morrison attended a few.

“It would be a big bash with at least 125 people from the community showing up,” he said. “I was part of a group that partied hardy all the time and we’d go there for New Years Eve.”

Recently, the Hydro House New Year’s Eve parties were remembered in a social media group, Vintage Vernon BC. The parties are described as legendary with one commenter recalling the major cleanups that took place the following morning.

Hydro House has since been torn down and replaced with other development, but it is fondly remembered by many Vernon residents.

“It was a place of fellowship until the Toperchuk’s sold it, and after they sold it, it became a place of friendship,” Morrison said.

If you have memories of Hydro House, please send them to news@infonews.ca.