Historic Sites of Manitoba: Foxwarren Consolidated School No. 525 (Foxwarren, Municipality of Prairie View)

Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

The Foxwarren Consolidated School arose in May 1916 from the consolidation of five school districts: Bayfield School No. 525, Dunstan School No. 379, Crewe School No. 546, Foxwarren School No. 1274, and Moresby School No. 910. In 1917, a two-storey brick school was erected in Foxwarren in what is now the Municipality of Prairie View, on a design by Winnipeg architect Henry William Greene. A bell tower was raised on the school in 1926, using the proceeds of concerts organized by principal George Stevens. Student enrollment in the school varied through time, from 54 to 250, with instruction up to grade 12 from 1927 to 1965, and up to grade 8 after 1965. The bell was later removed when the roof was deemed unable to support it, and it is now displayed as part of a commemorative monument for the school, along with the stone block bearing the year of its construction, and the time capsule from the earlier school inside the monument. The school was replaced by a new structure in 1995 but it closed in 2002 due to low enrollment. The 1917 school building was demolished.

Principals

Period

Principal

1912-1914

Mr. W. J. McLaughlin

1914-1915

Howard Robert Haines (1891-1974)

1915-1916

Robert S. Cahoon

1916-1919

Florence M. Rawson

1919-1920

G. G. Leckie

1920-1924

James Humphrey Plewes (1873-1963)

1924-1925

Samuel T. Newton (c1873-1943)

1925-1927

George Patrick Stevens (c1888-1988)

1927-1931

Charles T. Cresswell (1872-1961)

1931-1934

Leslie George Robinson (1903-1994)

1934-1938

C. C. Warkentin

1938-1943

Arni Kristinson (1883-1969)

1943-1946

Hilton Clarence Harper (1914-2005)

1946-1953

George Scott Belton (1904-1967)

1953-1956

Robert Leslie McIntosh (1925-2011)

1956-1957

A. Kristenson

1957-1960

John Pottinger Minions

1960-1961

John Milton

1961-1965

Mr. Jan Kupp

1965-1967

Mrs. E. J. Talbot

1967-1968

R. Kitchen

1968-1999

Phil J. DeCorby

Teachers

Among the early teachers at Foxwarren School was Sybil Francis Shack (1932-1934).

School Year

Teachers

1961-1962

Mr. Owen Clements, Mrs. Elizabeth Talbot

Photos & Coordinates

Foxwarren Consolidated School

Foxwarren Consolidated School (no date) by J. B. Morrison
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 82.

Foxwarren Consolidated School

Foxwarren Consolidated School (June 1933) by J. B. Morrison
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 82.

The former Foxwarren School building

The former Foxwarren School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 159.

The former Foxwarren School building

The former Foxwarren School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 157.

The former Foxwarren School building

The former Foxwarren School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 156.

Namestone from the original Foxwarren Consolidated School, now at the Foxwarren Museum

Namestone from the original Foxwarren Consolidated School, now at the Foxwarren Museum (October 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Foxwarren School commemorative monument with bell and cornerstone

Foxwarren School commemorative monument with bell and cornerstone (October 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.51578, W101.15322
denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

“Council reports,” Birtle Eyewitness, 3 October 1961, page 10.

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.

“Trustees conduct regular meeting,” Hamiota Echo, 13 September 1988, page 7.

A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.

“New Foxwarren School opened,” Shoal Lake Crossroads, 21 February 1995, page 1.

“Teacher assistants,” Shoal Lake Star, 27 July 1998, page 8.

“Rural schools facing empty classrooms,” Winnipeg Free Press, 1 May 2003, page 21.

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 25 January 2022

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