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West Calgary School

by John Cawthorne

edited Feb 2017

This picture of the West Calgary School, district 209 was taken years after the school was closed, just before it was to be torn down. It was situated where the Sarcee Trail and 26^th Ave SW intersect, to the NW of that intersection. The hill at the back, west of the school is part of the area of the Signal Hill district and the area to the southeast is Westbrook.

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The school served children from every direction outside the City of Calgary's western boundary. Children attended from farms further west toward Cooper Hall, to the north toward Spruce Cliff and south toward Sarcee as well as children from the Holmpatrick and Rosscarrock area. When I attended the school it housed grade one to grade nine. The smaller single room school to the south (left) was used for grades one to three, where as the larger building had two school rooms and the right wing housed grades four, five and six leaving the left wing for grades seven and eight and nine. I assume these three school rooms over the years had different combinations of grades as the situations changed. Before the smaller school was completed I believe the basement of the main school under the south wing was used for grades one, two and three.

We had the large school grounds to play in during recess and after eating lunch. There were a couple of baseball diamond marked out in each corner of the front yard, it seems to me that the diamond most used was in front of the elementary school building. As you can see there wasn't any level place to play because the grounds rose gradually to the west where the school buildings were and behind the school the hill became steeper. That didn't seem to bother us much because the hill behind the school offered some down hill activities in winter, spring and fall. We were supplied with the bare essentials for outside sports, at the beginning of the school year the school was supplied with a few softballs and a couple of bats along with a ball to kick around in a soccer fashion. These were kept under lock and key and issued out only when necessary if the equipment in use was beyond its useful life. So a cracked bat or softball with the cover coming unstitched was a big setback for our school outdoor playtime. When the rationed equipment was gone there would be no more unless someone brought items from home, which wasn’t too likely. The school yard offered a good place to kick a ball around or play tag or dodge ball.

The out side toilets for the school were straight north from the front door down a long path heading north. The building where the toilets were located was part of a large L shaped building used to house horses for the children that were lucky enough to ride them to school. A barn where they could keep the horses sheltered, fed and watered ready for the trip home after school. It was the responsibility of the horse owner to keep ample food and water on hand for their horses. Some of the students would haul the food supplies needed for the horses to the school daily along with their own lunch and homework books. The horse barn separated the boys and girl’s toilets with the boy’s toilet on the east side and the girl’s toilet on the south side of the L shaped building

The picket fence along the front boundary kept the children away from the road but in this time frame vehicles going past the school were far and few between. One thing that comes to mind and I remember it well, whenever the older cars such as the Ford Model T and Model A with wooden spoke wheels drove by the school and looking at the wheel turning through the picket fence, made the wheel appear to turn backward, just like in the old movies. When ever we seen a vehicle approach we would get into position to see the spectacle or even catch a glimpse out of the classroom window.

The main gate into the schoolyard as I remember was a work of art, built with field rocks cemented into place. The gate was directly in front of the larger school straight east from the school doors. The two stone gateposts were solid and there was a stone fence connected to them, which carried out toward the roadway gradually curving to the north and south to meet up with the picket fence. The stone gateposts were tall and the stone fence leading toward the roadway was about 3 feet high and a foot or so wide, ending up with another post slightly shorter than the gateposts where it joined the picket fence. As a student attending the school I had pleasant memories of the stone fence because there were two stones that together were in the shape of a horse saddle, so it was a race in the warm days to get out of school and run like the wind to be the one to sit in the saddle, I can remember eating my lunch right there many times. Lettuce and tomato sandwiches come to mind with lots of salt and pepper and thick butter my mother made the night before.

I remember very little about the inside of the elementary school but have some recollections of the two-room school. Just inside the front door was a large area where we would hang our coats, hats and mitts on coat hooks on a board along the walls. Also a place to store our lunch bag with everyone else’s until the noon break. Also inside the front entrance was a big water crock that was filled by the janitor or person assigned to do so. It was a public drinking place where everyone used the mug to draw water from the spigot. Inside the class rooms was quite typical with rows of desks, each row seating a given grade, so there may have been two rows of Grade five and three rows of grade six and so on, the older students were expected to help the younger ones with their learning. Black boards on two walls and a large window facing the road to daydream through. Each desk had a glass ink well set into the desktop in the upper right corner which had to be filled regularly so we in the higher grades could dip our straight pens and write a few lines before re-dipping. Later when the fountain pen became popular we could refill the inside rubber tube from the ink well allowing us to write pages before having to refill the cartridge. The ink came in very large glass bottle similar in size to the glass 4 one gallon wine bottles of today, I remember this big bottle of ink always standing on a table near the back of the schoolroom. Very tempting site for mischievous boys indeed. The storage compartment of the desks where either an open compartment under the desktop to keep all ones school supplies or a lift up desktop or a sliding drawer under the seat of the desk sliding out sideways into the aisle. There was also a science class room situated straight west of the main entrance lobby which I suppose was geared for the older students. I vaguely remember the layout of the science room but it seems to me it was typical of those days with a high bench type desks and stools to sit on while performing tasks of physics and chemistry. There were a lot of neat things hidden away in the science room and were brought out for special teaching assignments, like Bunsen burners and test tubes and chemical powders and liquids. I know that the bottle of mercury had to be locked away because it was a fascinating substance to play with and we would do anything to be able to sneak a small amount. One other device that I remember well was a replica of the solar system, mainly the sun, earth and moon. It was a mechanical device that illustrated how the earth and moon rotated around the sun, all connected together on a long arm and driven by gears to simulate the movement of these heavenly bodies.

There was a basement under the school where we were allowed to play in inclement weather. On the wall in big lettering were the words “Play the Game”. The basement also housed the coal fired furnace with large hot air ducts leading to the furthest class room as the air delivery system was gravity feed with hot air rising up the ducts and cold air returning to the furnace through grates in the floor leading down to the furnace. I believe right above the furnace the floor was open with a big grate so hot air could come up to heat the class room. I do not remember where they kept the coal in the basement for the furnace but assume we were not allowed to go into the coal bin. The teacher would have to stoke the furnace with coal throughout the day. A janitor would start the fires early to warm the school for the day ahead and likely make extra trips to the school in the cold nights of mid winters.

I can remember ever so well when the time come for the Track Meets, where we would compete with other schools. We would either entertain other school for a track meet at West Calgary School or travel to another school to compete there. That always seemed to be more fun to go to another school. My memories were foot racing and high and broad jump where I could show off my skills. What a great feeling to take one or more red or blue ribbons home after the meet. There always seemed to be a special treat at these meets in the form of an ice cream Dixie cup and hot dogs. This is a guess but it also seemed to me that some years we would travel to Bowness Park for a school picnic. Riding the electric streetcar to the park. It would take one or two transfers before we would board the streetcar for the long ride to Bowness along the Bow River Valley.

This is where my memory gets vague and I have had some help with the names of some teachers. I will list all I have here:

Principle, Nellie Loxam

Principle, Mr. Folkard

Mr. Russel

Irwin

Mrs. Campbell

Irving

Mrs/Miss Neam

Doris Tucker

Anita Bryant

Also some questions remain when looking at the picture:

Was there a teacher residence unit just south of the main school or was it a garage.

If so, was the small outhouse for the use of the teachers or the elementary students.

I have posted this article on my own web page so that I can edit the information as I get input from new members, I truly hope there will be some posts of former students or anyone connected with this school. Please feel welcome to post any thing you know about West Calgary School.

Thanks to my siblings Rhoda, Joe and Ben for their input

John Cawthorne (Cawthorn)