The East Kelowna Community Hall has heritage value because it has been, since its construction in 1940, the focus of social and recreational activities in the East Kelowna community.

The building replaced an earlier community hall built in 1929. In 1937, Harry R.F. Dodd, who had operated the Bellevue Hotel in Okanagan Mission before the First World War and ran the KLO general store and post office in East Kelowna since 1928, donated land for a larger community hall and tennis court.

A Community Hall Board was formed in 1938 and the new hall, built by community volunteer labour, opened in 1940. By 1955, a basement room under the stage and caretaker's quarters had been added. There was a further addition in 1970, perhaps the extension that creates the saltbox form, and various renovations over the years.

The hall is a central component of Downtown East Kelowna, which includes the KLO store, St. Mary's Anglican Church, Hillcrest Garage, and other local gathering places. The East Kelowna Community Hall is where many activities that helped establish a distinctive East Kelowna community have been held.

These activities have included meetings of the local chapter of the fruit growers' association and other bodies, wedding receptions, concerts and plays, Scouts and Guides, tennis and badminton, church and craft sales, farmers' markets, and many other functions.

In earlier years, a community Christmas party was held in the hall, with a huge Christmas tree lit with real candles by men on orchard ladders. Fall Fairs were held at the hall from 1951 to at least 1955 and were revived in the 1990s. Catholic Sunday Schools were held here in the 1950s, and in the 1990s a Montessori Elementary School operated here before moving to the old East Kelowna School.

The building was originally a simple rectangular building with a medium-pitched gable roof. Later additions made its form more complex, including the addition that gives the building its acquired saltbox form.

• Large and dominant building located at a major road intersection

• Original simple rectangular form still visible despite many additions

• Medium-pitch gable roof with eaves projecting slightly and exposed rafters along one side

• Later additions resulting in the present saltbox form

• High, one-level vaulted ceiling

• Large fixed windows with wide plain trim and plain sills, likely recent replacements

• Wood-shingle siding