In Prairie Valley there is an area of land that once was called Millionaire’s Row.
Actually several of those “millionaires” were actually billionaires. And the richest of all Canadian billionaires was Sir Herbert Holt.
Holt was a director of over 300 companies. His focus was electrical utilities but other interests included Holt Renfrew, Paramount Pictures and the national president of the Royal Bank of Canada.
Holt’s financial records are very scarce, but Holt probably was the one responsible for the installation of Summerland’s first hydro-electric generator.
Our first generator was from the Montreal Electric Company and Holt owned the company. Summerland was the first Okanagan community to provide electricity, in 1905.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Holt