Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn was a town constructed to serve the railway being constructed from Castlegar to the Boundary region. It was situated on the west side of Lower Arrow Lake, 18 miles north Robson, directly across from Deer Park. The school was built in 1898 and opened on October 15 of that year. The teacher was Miss Elizabeth Fletcher, who had formerly taught at the Waterloo Public School. The school accommodated between 30 & 40 pupils. Once the railway was completed the town was abandoned.

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Woodland Park Elementary

Woodland Park Elementary

This school first opened its doors for pupils in Castlegar in 1961. This new four room school plus activity room was built primarily to accommodate the children of the employees of the recently completed Celgar Pulp Mill. The 120 students, grades 1 to 5, were very excited to attend this new school. In 1965, two classrooms and a library were added. In subsequent years, kindergarten and individual progress classes were included. The school was closed and sold to a developer and was completely destroyed by fire.

 

Twin Rivers Elementary

Twin Rivers Elementary

This school originally had four primary classes. Two rooms were added in the early 1960s. Additional classrooms were constructed over the years. Twin Rivers School housed only elementary intermediate grades and was a feeder school for Kinnaird Junior Secondary (Middle) School.

 

Thrums - Tarrys

Thrums - Tarrys

In 1908, a two room school opened to serve pupils in the Thrums-Tarrys area. The school’s enrollment was 21 pupils. This old wooden structure was used until about 1947. During 1948 – 49 a new school was built on the present Tarrys School site.

However, this school succumbed to fire. Several years went by before the school was rebuilt. The old Thrums two room school was hauled to the site of the burned a building and was refurbished and served as a school for six years.

 

Robson

Robson

The first weekday school in Robson was held in a church building. The first school building was opened on August 31, 1908. The school had two classrooms, an activity room, office and a staff room. In 1964, Robson School registered a total of 224 students from grades 1 to 7. In 1983, the school took on a new look with the addition of two classrooms, a library, a new staff room, a medical room, a learning assistance room and an expanded office. At that time the old, two room school was finally dismantled.

 

Renata

Renata

Renata was located on the west side of Lower Arrow Lake and originally named Dog Creek. The first school classes were held there in an old log house in 1908. The first permanent school was built in 1912 with voluntary labour. The lumber used was manufactured at the Harms’ sawmill. Desks were donated. The old log schoolhouse was used as a residence for some time but burned to the ground in 1914 – 15. Nothing was saved. In the 1940s a new school was built and was used until 1965 when the community was abandoned as a result of the construction of the Hugh Keenlyside Dam.

 

Raspberry

Raspberry

This school was located in the Pass Creek Valley. In the 1930s, the Doukhobors built this historic schoolhouse with bricks and lumber they produced by themselves. More than 100 students of the Castlegar district received the foundations of their secondary schooling in this uniquely Russian styled the building. The school closed in 1951 but occasionally was reopened if there were too many students for Robson Elementary. The school was eventually sold and converted to a restaurant. It is now a private residence.

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Pass Creek

Pass Creek

No one really knows when the first school was built in Pass Creek, however in the 1930s a regular school with a teacherage was built on what is now lot 38. In 1942, a new school was built on the lot number two, North Pass Creek by Kinney Creek. This school burned down because of a faulty chimney or stove in 1947. In 1948, another two room building with an attached teacherage was built. This school was closed in 1972. In 1972, a new four room school was on lot five, South Pass Creek. In 1975, an activity room and a kindergarten classroom were added. Classes from kindergarten to grade 7 were held in this school. The school was closed in 1985 and is now a store and storage facility.

 

Ootischenia

Ootischenia

The small, brown shingled building located on Columbia Road, Ootischenia, just off the junction of Highway 3A, is the original school. In 1942, a school was built with three classrooms plus a teacherage under one roof. The school enrolled students from grades 1 to 8 in three classrooms. This school remained in operation until 1962.

In 1963, a new school was built and the old building was purchased by the Ootischenia Doukhobor community and it now serves the community as a meeting hall. The new school consisted of two classrooms and the staff room. In 1978 there were major additions to the school such as a library, a gymnasium, new offices, storage rooms and a janitor’s room. The school board closed the school in 1986.

 

Kinnaird (Stewardsville)

Kinnaird (Stewardsville)

Originally, Kinnaird was known as Stewardsville. In approximately 1917, a one-room frame building was constructed to serve as a school for the children of the mill workers. This school operated until 1932.

In 1948, the Kinnaird Elementary School opened with three primary classrooms. Eventually, new classrooms were added to accommodate the increased enrollment of students as the community grew. In 1978, the original Kinnaird elementary school building was totally destroyed by fire and the pupils were dispersed to other elementary schools in the District until a new school was built.

 

Kinnaird Junior Secondary

Kinnaird Junior Secondary

This school was officially opened on November 3, 1964, even though students have been in attendance in September of that year. The frame building consisted of five classrooms, a library, science room and a gymnasium. Renovations and structural changes had been made as required over the years. Before the 1970s it only housed grade 8 students and in the 1970s grade 9 students were enrolled in the school. Later the school accommodated grades 6, 7, and 8 and the name was changed to Kinnaird Middle School. It has since been sold and today is church.

 

Kanamore

Kanamore

This school was situated across the Brilliant Suspension Bridge near the area where the road branches off to the present golf course. The school was built similarly to Brilliant Number One and included a teacherage. Students were taught grades 1 to 8. The school operated from 1933 to 1950.

 

Glade

Glade

This community can be reached across the Kootenay River by ferry only. The first school was established in the community in 1917 and was made from brick. However it was victim of fire. In 1933, a new school was built. This school had one classroom at each end of the building, and a four room teacherage. The building itself was more luxurious than many other schools in the area. Unfortunately it burned down in 1937. In 1938 an old brick building which once was a store was used as the school.

 

Gibson Creek

Gibson Creek

The last Gibson Creek school was built in 1947 and closed in 1966. It replaced the first Gibson Creek school which had become inadequate for the needs of the community. The first school was a typical pioneer building, bare and scant and materials, a small dark classroom, a wood and coal stove for heat, outdoor plumbing and bare accommodations for the teacher. The building still stands. The new school building was a stucco covered frame structure resembling most of the other schools in the district except for size and the two room teacher’s apartment attached to the rear. This school was closed in 1966.

 

Champion Creek

Champion Creek

Champion Creek is situated 8 miles south of Castlegar on the east side of the Columbia River, A Doukhobor community consisting of five villages located one quarter of a mile apart was established here. The school was established in 1922 and was located in a meeting room furnished with long desks and benches seating five or six pupils. The student body of consisted anywhere from 15 to 36 pupils. This school closed in 1958.

 

Deer Park

Deer Park

In 1907, a one-room log school was built in this settlement on the east side of the Columbia River north of Castlegar with 10 pupils attending classes. In 1912, Mennonite settlers moved in to the area farms and built a new school which had a steeple bell. The school was demolished when B.C. Hydro bought out properties along Arrow Lakes for construction of the Hugh Keenlyside Dam.

The steeple bell was saved and it is now housed at Robson Elementary.

In 1952, a modern school was constructed and the old school was used as a community hall. This school was sold to a private individual and moved to a different locale in preparation for the construction of the dam.

 

Cay Creek

Cay Creek

This school was an unused frame building located in a Doukhobor village. The school housed classes from grades 1 to 8. It was simply furnished and heating by the usual woodstove. It operated from 1939 to 1941.

 

Castlegar Primary

Castlegar Primary

Prior to January 1967, the primary classes were held at the Twin Rivers Elementary School. The new school housed grades 1 to 4 for several years. In 1974, the school had a fire. Luckily because of its cement block construction only one classroom was destroyed and the others only had smoke damage. During Castlegar Primary existence it has housed primary students from different schools in the area. During the 1980s the Russian bilingual kindergarten class was piloted at Castlegar Primary.

 

Castlegar Elementary

Castlegar Elementary

In 1908, a few residents of the community that would become Castlegar formed a committee, bought lumber and built a one room school on the property where Eremeko building presently stands. In 1923, a two room school house was constructed on the property now housing the Courthouse and the School District No. 20 maintenance shop and bus garages. The rooms were separated by a folding wall which could turn the school into one large room. The community also used the space as a meeting hall, concert hall, a church or a Sunday school room. In 1932, a third room was added and in 1938, three more rooms were added. In the 1930s and continuing until almost 1950 the school taught pupils from grades 1 to 8. In 1951, when Stanley Humphries High School was built, grades seven and eight moved to the new school.

 

Brilliant School No. 4 & 5

Brilliant School No. 4 & 5

This was the one room school with a teacherage was located in Ootischenia. It burned down sometime in the 1930’s. An old abandoned cobbler shop was then put into use as a school. This school was once called the “Chebararnia School”. Chebatarnia is the Russian word for leather or harness shop. About 40 students were enrolled from grades 1 to 8. The building was old, drafty and most unsuitable for the students, so another classroom was established in the front section of the cobbler shop.