On this day in 1967, Edmonton's oldest high school was showing its age.
An Edmonton Journal article from the time notes the state of the aging Old Scona School: Dust drifted up between the creaking floorboards; paint peeled; water had damaged the walls. It all showed what nearly 60 years could do to what was once the most sophisticated schoolhouse in Alberta.
In 1907, when construction of the school started, Strathcona was a growing community on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River, having just incorporated as a town of about 3,500 people. Plans were created for a high school to support that growing population. But it wasn't just high school students needing a space to learn.
In 1908, the University of Alberta held its first semester. And while it had a campus located just west of Strathcona, there weren't any buildings on it yet (nor would there be until 1911). So, the university struck a deal with the Strathcona School Board to share space in their new school. When the Strathcona Collegiate Institute opened in 1909, the first storey of the brick building had classrooms for 71 high school students, as well as staff facilities. Meanwhile, the second floor had university classrooms, the U of A president's office, and offices for other administrators.
There was a fair amount of excitement about the new school — Alberta's first premier laid the cornerstone to the red-brick building during construction. At the time, Old Scona was the largest and one of the most well-equipped high schools in Alberta and its official opening was attended by around 600 people.
The facility became part of Edmonton's school system in 1912 when that city annexed Strathcona. Around that time, a kindergarten was opened in the building's basement. And during the First World War, the same basement doubled as a rifle range for local soldiers (hopefully in a different part of the basement.)
The building continued to serve as a high school for almost 50 years before students moved to a new Strathcona High School a few blocks away. Now dubbed Old Scona School to avoid confusion with the newer high school, the original building continued to hold junior high classes until the 1960s, when it was converted into a special education centre.
The aging building was updated and renovated in 1971, when it became the Scona campus for the brand-new Grant MacEwan Community College (now MacEwan University) — surely making it one of the only high schools to serve as the initial home for two separate universities. Four years later, the college vacated the space and the building returned to its original purpose as a high school, opening as Old Scona Academic.
Since then, Old Scona has continued to educate the city's high school students, consistently ranking as one of the top high schools in the province. As the school year begins to wind down, Edmonton's public schools are preparing for the future academic year — one that includes a change to the province's education funding formula, which administrators say will have a marginal effect.
This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist Rev Recluse of Vintage Edmonton.