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Between 1908 and 1909, a four-storey stone and brick building, designed by provincial architect Samuel Hooper, was constructed by the Snyder Brothers on the edge of the Portage la Prairie, beside Crescent Lake, as a home for the Industrial Training School. Modeled on the Minnesota Training School at Red Wing, Minnesota, the facility opened its doors in February 1910 with the transfer to its custody of 20 boys from the Central District Gaol. It was intended as a facility to deal with “juvenile delinquents” and others by giving them work-related training, with instruction in tailoring, shoe-making, gardening, carpentry, blacksmithing, baking, cooking, farming, and sewing. Later, other buildings were added nearby, some of which still remain at the site. In 1931, it was renamed the Manitoba Home for Boys.
During the Second World War, the site was taken over by the Canadian military, forcing the staff and boys to move to temporary quarters at Carman and the No. 3 Forestry Camp at the Whiteshell Forest Reserve. They returned to Portage la Prairie after the war.
A school was also operated at the site to provide elementary and high school education to those incarcerated, known most commonly as Manitoba Home for Boys School, it was properly named Lakeview Institute (also known as Lakeview School) and operated as a Special School [sometimes listed as within School Division 99].
Known as the Agassiz Youth Centre since 1977, the 59-acre site was operated by the Manitoba government as a youth correctional centre for young offenders.
It was demolished in December 2022.
Period
Principal
1909-1912
Wellington Bridgman (1853-1922)
1912-1915
John Weir (1867-1959)
1915-1923
Findlay William McKinnon (1879-1957)
1923-1925
Hugh Duncan Cumming (1879-1942)
1925-1926
Edgar Wood
1926-1948
Harry Atkinson (1882-1968)
1948-1967
Bruce D. Jones
1967-?
Raymond G. Atkinson
?-c1975
Terrance Rempel
Period
Principal
1949-1954
Maurice Andre Joseph Harvey (1927-1992)
1954-1955
Harvey Edgar Hedley (1924-2014)
1955-1959
Jacob C. “Jake” Klassen
1959-1960
?
1960-1968
Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (1914-1984)
1968-1969
Clinton Joseph Cramer (Acting)
Period
Teachers
1944-1945
[at Carman]: Lionel Lachlan Clench (grades 2-8)
1945-1946
[at Carman]: Ernest S. Berg (grades 1-9, ?-June), Albert W. Derksen (grades 1-9, January-?), ? (September-December)
1946-1947
?
1947-1948
?
1948-1949
?
1949-1950
Maurice Andre Harvey (senior grades), ? (other grades)
1950-1951
Lorne Avery Chapple (grades 4-6), Lois Elizabeth Harvey (grades 7-8), Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 9-10)
1951-1952
Lorne Avery Chapple (grades 4-6), Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 3-10, September-December; grades 9-10, January-June), George Gilbert Perry (grades 9-10, September-December), John Leo Ryan (grades 7-8)
1952-1953
Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 10-11; September-December; grades 9-11, January-June), Alexander Samuel Kostiuk (grades 7-8, September-December), Donald McDonald (grades 7-9, September-December), Peter Raymond Porter-Smith (grades 7-8, January-June), Wilfred Tarlton Shaw (grades 7-8, January-June), Melvin Zurkowski (grades 1-6)
1953-1954
Lois Elizabeth Harvey (grades 5-6), Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 9-11), Alma Irene Penman (grades 7-8)
1954-1955
Harvey Edgar Hedley (grades 9-10), Lois Elizabeth Harvey (grades 5-6), Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 1-4, January-June), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 1-4, January-June), Alma Irene Penman (grades 7-8)
1955-1956
Jacob C. “Jake” Klassen (grades 9-10), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 3-4, September-December & January-?), Alma Irene Penman (grades 8-9), Mary Simpson (grades 3-4, ?-June), Mabel Jane Walker (grades 6-7)
1956-1957
?
1957-1958
Jacob C. “Jake” Klassen (grades 9-10), Wilhelm Kutcher (grades 5-8), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 2-5), Alma Irene Penman (grades 7-8), Mabel Jane Walker (grades 4-5)
1958-1959
George I. Black (grades 4-6), Elsie Klassen (grade 6), Jacob C. “Jake” Klassen (grades 9-10), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 2-5), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Mabel Jane Walker (grade 7)
1959-1960
?
1960-1961
Garry Howard Keast (grade 9), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 6-8), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 2-5), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grade 10), Mabel Jane Walker (grades 7-8)
1961-1962
Jessie Viola Gates (grades 1-4, January-June), Garry Howard Keast (grade 9), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 5-6), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 2-4), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grades 10-11), Mabel Jane Walker (grade 7)
1962-1963
Jessie Viola Gates (grades 2-5), Garry Howard Keast (grade 9), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 6-7), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grades 10-11), Mabel Jane Walker (grade 7)
1963-1964
Garry Howard Keast (grades 9-10), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grade 6), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grades 4-5, pt September - December; grades 3-5, January-June), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grade 11), Mrs. Ross (grades 4-5 substitute, pt September), Mrs. Simpson (grades 4-5 substitute, pt September), Mabel Jane Walker (grade 7)
1964-1965
Ella Myrtle Cook (grade 7), Garry Howard Keast (grades 9-10), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grades 2-4), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 5-6), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grade 11)
1965-1966
Ella Myrtle Cook (grade 7), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 5-6), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grades 2-4), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), David Peter Shyiak (grades 9-11)
1966-1967
Elisson Winfield Braemar (grades 9-11), Roberta Gwendolyne Chepil (grades 7-8), Ella Myrtle Cook (grades 3-6), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grade 8), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grades 7-8), Alma Irene Penman (upgrading)
1967-1968
Roberta Gwendolyne Chepil (grade 8, September-December; grade 7, January-June), Ella Myrtle Cook (ungraded), Clinton Joseph Cramer (Industrial Arts & Driver Training), John Allan Howardson (grade 10, September-December), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grade 8), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grade 7), Alma Irene Penman (grade 9)
1968-1969
Roberta Gwendolyne Chepil (grades 8-10, Occupational Entrance), Clinton Joseph Cramer (ungraded, Industrial Arts), John Roderick MacLean (grades 3-9, Industrial Arts), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 8-12, September-December; grades 8-10, January-June), Gladys Doreen McMillan (ungraded)
Postcard view of the Industrial Training School (circa 1911)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2013-0116
View of the Industrial Training School (circa 1915) by James W. Jarrett
Source: Archives of Manitoba, Portage la Prairie - Provincial - Industrial School for Boys 5, N14227
View of the Industrial Training School (no date)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, Portage la Prairie - Provincial - Industrial School for Boys 3, N14987
One of the remaining, older buildings at the Agassiz Youth Centre having new cedar roofing installed (May 2013)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
One of the remaining, older buildings at the Agassiz Youth Centre (July 2019)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.96540, W98.28236
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitoba Home for Girls (290 Drury Avenue, West St. Paul)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Flag Rock (Whiteshell Provincial Park)
The Early Years of the Manitoba Home for Boys (Portage la Prairie), 1889-1948 by Cameron Harvey. Winnipeg: The Author, 2010. [Manitoba Legislative Library, HV 9110 .P6M3 Har]
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
“Manitoba Home Boys to be housed in forestry camp,” Winnipeg Free Press, 14 September 1940, page 22.
“Trophy, prizes awarded boys at Portage School,” Winnipeg Free Press, 16 June 1949, page 25.
“Film men elect Dr. M. G. Elliott,” Winnipeg Tribune, 31 October 1949, page 5.
“Edith Roders chapter visits Portage boys,” Winnipeg Free Press 19 May 1952, page 15.
“For troubled boys: Home ‘like a military school’,” Winnipeg Free Press, 30 March 1964, page 3.
Portage la Prairie, 1870-1970 by Anne M. Collier, Portage la Prairie, 1970, page 250.
Obituary [Wilfred Tarlton Shaw], Winnipeg Free Press, 14 December 2003, page A10.
We thank Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 4 June 2023
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