© 2021, Christian Cassidy
Address: 181 Edmonton Street at St. Mary Avenue
Opened: June 1903
Demolished: October 1969
Architect: J. B. Mitchell
Contractor: Kelly Brothers
Inside the lobby of the Winnipeg Convention Centre is a plaque dedicated to Alexandra School that stood on the site from 1902 to 1969. It was a model school design that was replicated around the city and even in other provinces. The school was also called into service during the 1918 -19 influenza pandemic providing vaccinations and meals to thousands of Winnipeggers.
Here’s a look back at its history.
July 16, 1902, Winnipeg Free Press
The Winnipeg School Board put out tenders for the construction of a new school in the largely residential neighbourhood around Edmonton Street and St. Mary Avenue in July 1902. It was to replace the ageing Carlton School located nearby, (where True North Square is now.)
The building was designed by Commissioner of School Buildings J. B. Mitchell.
Mitchell, an architect by trade, had been in that role since 1892 and oversaw the modernization of the city's school system. Much of the design work for its buildings was farmed out until 1901 when the school board appointed Mitchell to do double duty as its architect.
From: Public School Buildings of Manitoba, Province of Manitoba
In Public School Buildings of Manitoba,
David Butterfield notes that under Mitchell and his draftsmen, "Not
surprisingly, the variety of building expression declined. But the
quality of design also changed, with a reliance on a rather stolid
symmetry and modest detail."
The plan for Alexandra School was a simple one and would be the master design for schools across the city and beyond in the early 1900s.
Construction got underway in late summer after Kelly Brothers were awarded the construction contract.
The $40,000 building was completed in late June 1903, just in time to move students from Carlton School over before the summer break. This was important as the school division wanted to tear Carlton down and construct a new school on the site. In order for it to be ready for the 1904 school year, construction had to start before the summer break began.
The official opening ceremony for Alexandra School took place in October 1903 with J. F. Fowler, president of the school board, presiding.
June 9, 1903, Winnipeg Tribune
Days into the new school year it was clear that Alexandra School was already too small for the population boom in the area. It had eleven teachers and was built for over 500 students but right away there were calls for another teacher to be hired and the end of a hallway had to be turned into a temporary classroom.
The opening of the new Carlton Schools the following year eased the overcrowding situation.
Some write-ups about the school say that a third storey was added soon after it opened. This is likely not the case. What appears to have happened was a three-storey addition was added to the rear of the structure.
A 1904 promotional ad for the community of Wetaskiwin, AB boasted that its new public school was based on the plans of Winnipeg's Alexandra School as provided to them by Mitchell. That school was torn down in 1954.
In February 1905, a delegation from Regina's school board came to town to tour Alexandra School. It was reported that, "The delegation were exceedingly pleased with both the exterior appearance and interior arrangement of this school."
It appears that at least a couple of Regina's schools were built according to this plan, including Alexandra School and Albert Public School.
November 8, 1918, Winnipeg Tribune
The school was pressed into action in 1918 to help save lives as Winnipeg began losing the battle to contain the influenza pandemic.
After schools were shut down in October, Alexandra was one of three schools chosen to serve as mass immunization clinics. The Free Press reported that during an October 29 visit by one of their reporters, a police constable was called in earlier that day to keep peace in the long waiting line.
It was soon clear that the city needed more clinics and in the reorganization, Alexandra School was given a new task: it became the headquarters of the Emergency Diet Kitchen.
The kitchen was operated largely by volunteers who prepared, packaged and distributed two meals a day to homes stricken by influenza. One day, for example, they fed 160 families, some with as many as five or six children.
One of the key volunteers at the diet kitchen was Evelyn Maw. Married to Joseph Maw of Maw's Garage, she had ready access to vehicles and vehicle owners and helped with the distribution of food into the community. She contracted influenza likely during one of these home visits and died of the disease on November 30, 1918.
October 2, 1969, Winnipeg Free Press
Several factors contributed to the closure of Alexandra School at the end of the 1968 - 1969 school year.
For one, the residential neighbourhood around it had slowly disappeared since the post-war move to the suburbs began in the late 1940s. The school’s enrolment dropped below 200 students, and that was with Carlton School having been demolished in the 1930s to expand the Eaton’s parking lot.
Another major factor was that Metro Winnipeg had its eye on that part of downtown for the development of high-rise office towers and apartment blocks. Bulldozers were sent in to clear entire blocks, though in the end most of these towers never materialized and left large surface parking lots.
When the school was finally demolished in 1969 it was expected to be offered up to one of a number of developers that Metro was courting. In the end, it purchased the property from the school board in December 1971 for $500,000 to construct the Winnipeg Convention Centre.
It should be noted that the plaque in the lobby was not erected by the school board or the city. It was donated by Wilfred G. Pearce, a former principal of Alexandra School.
British-born Pearce came to Canada as a child in 1900. After graduating from Normal School, he began teaching in Bowsman, Plumas and other rural
Manitoba communities. In 1929, he and his family relocated to Winnipeg
where his first job here was a brief stint as acting principal for Alexandra School.
Pearce returned to Alexandra School as principal in 1949 before moving onto Pinkham School for the 1951 school year. He retired in 1959 and wrote about local history in newspaper columns and the book, Winnipeg School Days 1871-1950.
Considering his short association with the school, it must have made a great impression on him.
Wifred G. Pearce died on July 9, 1975, six months after the Convention Centre officially opened.
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