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The Cartwright School District was organized formally in April 1884, replacing an earlier school that had operated from 1882 at NW18-2-14W, northwest of the present Cartwright town site. Following the relocation of the town to its present location, in 1885, the first school was built in August 1888 at the same site as the present Cartwright School. It was replaced in 1896-1897 by a one-storey brick and stone schoolhouse erected on a design by Brandon architect W. H. Shillinglaw, and the earlier schoolhouse was moved a block away for use as a private residence which remains in existence today.
In 1920, two classrooms were added to the 1897 school building and this structure served the educational needs of the community until it was destroyed by fire on 13 February 1950. A new school was built that same year, on the same site: a two-storey, flat-roofed stucco building. As the school population grew, first a workroom, then a gymnasium were converted to classrooms. In 1962, a new collegiate was built to the south and the 1950 structure was used for the elementary grades. In 1978, a gymnasium and two classrooms were built between the two buildings, joining them.
The 1950 elementary school building was closed in 2006 due to high mould levels. The student population had declined by then, and students were crowded into the collegiate building. Eventually, two portable classrooms were added at the south end. The 1950 building was torn down in 2009 and its site is now a gravel bus pad.
Period
Principal
1898-1899
W. J. Barker
1899-1900
John Henry Conklin (1876-1955)
1900-1901
Albert E. Young
1901-1902
Herbert Hanford “Harry” McIntosh (1880-1953)
1902-1904
David Smith Tod (1870-1937)
1904-1909
?
1909-1910
W. H. McLean
1910-1912
?
1912-1914
M. R. C. Smith
1914-1915
G. S. Bell
1915-1916
Norman Ewart Brett (1881-1957)
1916-1917
A. W. Smith
1917-1918
Amy C. Purdy
1918-1919
Claude Elmer Luther Hogarth Law (c1881-1959)
1919-1922
A. H. G. Mitchell
1922-1923
O. G. Parsons
1923-1928
A. J. Radley
1928-1931
Richard Collier “Dick” Green (1899-1955)
1931-1937
John Peter Sigvaldason (1904-1986)
1937-1939
John Edward Lysecki (1905-1990)
1939-1941
Edgar John Jarvis (1894-1972)
1941-1942
Michael Ewanchuk (1908-2004)
1942-1945
Frank Benbow Fox (1890-1964)
1945-1946
Claude Amnesty Joyce (1908-1997)
1946-1949
Frank Unrau Dyck (1894-1982)
1949-1953
Olive Mildred McMahon (c1914-1962)
1953-1954
Samuel Stewart Bryan (1889-?)
1954-1955
Norman S. Toms (?-?)
1955-1956
Jacob “Jack” Isaak (1921-2004)
1956-1959
James Harvey Dow (1925-1999)
1959-1961
Arthur Kendall Stratton (1895-1961)
1961-1962
Hugh Arthur Johnson (1910-1967)
1962-1970
Joseph Albert Mayers (1909-1980)
1970-1973
R. G. Langton
Among the teachers of Cartwright School were W. G. Bolton, Floris Olsen, Amy Jean Mitchell, and Ruby Arndt (1945-1946).
Cartwright School, sometime after the addition of two classrooms to its rear in 1920, before its destruction by fire in 1950 (no date) by W. J. Parr
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 61.
Cartwright School soon after its construction, visible at extreme right in the photo below, demolished in 2009 (1950)
Source: Vicki Wallace
The present Cartwright School complex including portable classrooms, collegiate, gymasium and the then-closed elementary school building erected in 1950 and demolished in 2009 (2008)
Source: Vicki WallaceSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.09863, W99.33880
denoted by symbol on the map above
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Vicki Wallace and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 24 December 2023
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