The Fairdale School District was established formally in May 1883 and a frame school building was erected at SW22-2-16W in what is now the Rural Municipality of Killarney-Turtle Mountain. In 1897, the schoolhouse was moved to NW21-2-16W. It closed in January 1968 when it became part of the Turtle Mountain School Division. Available information suggests the former school building was used as a granary and was present at the site as recently as 2005 but all that was found during a visit in October 2011 were some fire-charred wood fragments and the bricks from its chimney. A rock monument nearby commemorates it.
Among the teachers of Fairdale School were A. L. Davidson (1883), Irene Arnott (1911), and Mrs. Devona Kentner (1967).
Fairdale School (no date) by W. J. Parr
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 69.
The former Fairdale School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1385.
Remains of the Fairdale School building (October 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Fairdale School commemorative monument (October 2011)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.14704, W99.57119
denoted by symbol on the map above
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.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
Reflections: Turtle Mountain Municipality and Killarney, 1882-1982, page 107.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 30 January 2021
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