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 ~ Brickyard
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 ~ ~ Palace Creamery
 ~ ~ Mr. Bill Cameron
 ~ ~ Fire at the Creamery
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The Palace Creamery was established in the Moffet house in 1925. The house was built by F.V. Moffet,  manager of the Columbia Flouring Mills, in 1909. It was the social center of Enderby in the early 1900's.

The Enderby Creamery house was very big. It had three floors, a basement, main floor, and an upstairs. The house was located on Belvedere Street where the Mountain View Electric building is standing. In 1937 the house caught on fire and the top floor burned.

All the floors in the house were made out of hardwood. The windows were made into the walls with ledges so you could sit inside them. Inside the walls there were pulleys, with weights on the ends of them it was easy to open the window. In the basement there was a huge fireplace made out of local rock. There was a weight room in the basement as well, where the local men would go to workout. All through the house there were brass stoves and on the main floor there was also a beautiful fireplace, such as the one on the bottom floor.

Mr. and Mrs. Skelly came to Enderby in the early 1900's from Alberta. They had all of their children in Enderby. Mr. Skelly worked in the Creamery in Enderby from 1925-39. Enderby Creamery was not the Skelly's first home. They came from Daysland Alberta, where Mr. Skelly had run Burns' Creamery. The fulltime workers in the Enderby Creamery were Mr. Skelly, Mr. Dunn and for a while Mr. Bill Cameron. Later on Mr. and Mrs. Skelly's kids worked in the Creamery with the wrapping of butter and the cleaning of machines.

There was lots of machinery in the Creamery. This included vats. which were used for keeping the cream at a certain temperature. The churns were used for turning or stirring the cream. There was a lab where Mr. Skelly tested his cream and butter. and also a storage room and turbine can drier. Because Mr. Skelly would not accept any cream that was not from a clean farm, the cream also had to be clean and pure. As for testing his butter it would have to be just right, not too salty, or anything wrong with it. Mr. Skelly had very high standards. Everything in his building had to be scalded and washed well.

There was also an ice house at the Creamery. Mr. Skelly bought ice from the natives which was mostly taken from the Shuswap River and Carbert's pond. The ice was used for storing the cream. The ice was cut into huge blocks. The scrap ice was given to the local farmers for their own use.

The butter was put into big boxes then put into coolers. After it was cooled it was cut into pound blocks. It was then weighed and packaged. The Creamery dealt strictly with cream for making butter. There was a milk truck that John MacPherson had which he used to deliver milk around Enderby.

Mr. Skelly decided to retire in 1939 and become a 'Gentleman Farmer'. The Creamery continued to produce butter until approximately 1950, when it was switched to fluid milk.

From an interview with Florence Mann,
daughter of Ernest Skelly.

Naomi LaBelle
ALF School 1989