| Architect: J.L.Wilson of the Calgary architectural
firm Child and Wilson.
Contractor:
Thomas Underwood of
Calgary. Interior finishing completed by William Wood and
I.H. Church.
Original
cost: $2,500.00
Construction materials:
Hand hewn, rough faced
sandstone from the William Oliver quarries.
Architectural style:
First and only school in
Calgary built in the Richardson Romanesque style.
Original interior
details:
Two classrooms.
Furniture was locally made. Long benches and tables were
used rather than individual desks.
Historical highlights:
- 30 lots at $125.00
each were purchased from the Canadian Pacific
Railway ($3,750.00)
- The South Ward
school completed August 7, 1894 was Calgary's
first sandstone school and the first to have
electricity and running water.
- Following the
September 1894 opening only one of the two rooms
was used. The second classroom was not required
until 1899 when the recession of the 90s ended.
- In 1900 Miss A.G.
Foote taught the junior room and Mr. Jarrett the
senior room. A cadet corps was introduced in
1898. In 1901 a pioneer program of industrial and
manual training was offered to boys in the higher
grades under the McDonald Lloyd Training Fund.
- During 1906 a three
storey, ten room sandstone school designed by
architect R.G.Garden was erected on the east side
of South Ward for $60,000. After the new school
was built the original two room structure was
used as a workshop by the Board's Building
Department until 1910. It became known as the
Annex.
- In 1910 both South
Ward schools were formally renamed Haultain after
Sir Frederick William Gordon Haultain who
represented Calgary for years in the North-West
Territories Legislature and had been Premier from
1892 to 1905.
- Between 1910 and
1914 the Haultain Annex housed the office of Dr.
Melville Scott, Calgary's first Superintendent of
Schools.
- Over the years the
Annex was used for classrooms, storage, workshop,
offices, gymnasium and auditorium.
- In 1922 the
Haultain Annex was renovated and used once again
for regular classes. The original frame entrance
was torn down and replaced with a stone entrance
which included a cloak room and lobby.
- By 1925 the
Haultain complex was the biggest in the city with
525 students.
- 1933 monthly
salaries ranged from $126.00 for Miss A.H. Smith
to $272.80 for principal B.L.Cook. The assistant
janitor was paid $100.00.
- Principal R.L.
Harvey organized Calgary's first school patrols
at Haultain in 1937.
- After 1957 Haultain
offered only the elementary grades.
- By 1962 enrolment
had declined to 135 elementary students resulting
in the closure of both Haultain schools
- The May 26, 1962
closing ceremonies featured the Calgary School
Patrol Band. Miss Dorothy Rogers, children's
librarian at Memorial Park library read the
school's epitaph. " I am content to retire
in honor, and leave this task to the younger
stewards."
- May 12, 1964 a
three alarm fire completely destroyed the 1907
structure and damaged the 1894 building.
- In 1972 the School
Board leased the property and Annex to the City
of Calgary and a park area was developed.
- August 15, 1979,
amid considerable controversy over the future of
the 1894 school and the valuable property where
it was situated, Alberta Minister of Culture
declared Haultain Annex a Registered Historic
Resource.
- November 1980 -
City of Calgary purchased the "Annex"
and surrounding property for $3.1 million.
- In 1986 the
restored Haultain Annex, the city's oldest
surviving school building, was reopened by Mayor
Ralph Klein as the Uncles at Large headquarters.
- Currently home to
the Haultain School of Fine Arts.
|
Haultain School 