The Clarke - Ritchie Packing House was located across the street from the Keremeos Hotel, site of an empty concrete slab today.
Former Mayor and longtime resident Francis Peck recognized several faces in the above photo, recalling names like Dundas, Crowder, Mattice, Pettepice, Harris and Lewis.
“I believe it burned down,” she said of the packinghouse’s ultimate fate.
“Keremeos once had three packing houses and a cannery,” Peck recalled, “ my first job was in a packing house, for 30 cents an hour.”
Peck recalls working conditions as being quite primitive, with outdoor plumbing, and no heat in the building housing the packing lines.
“I remember ladies with their feet in boxes, filled with newspaper, or whatever, to try and keep their feet warm,” she said, “the train would pull up alongside the packing house and wait for us to finish packing. The boxes were loaded into refrigerated cars.
“It was a big business at one time.”