Holylea School District No. 904 was formally established in August 1897, and a school was built the next year on the northeast quarter of 20-15-22W in what is now the Rural Municipality of Oakview. The first teacher was William Harris, paid a monthly salary of $30 from June to December. In addition to serving the educational needs of the area, the school also was a centre for social gatherings, concerts, and community picnics.
The school closed in 1951 and its remaining students went to Strathclair Consolidated School No. 284 or McConnell Consolidated School No. 1711. The district was dissolved in January 1957. The school building was demolished and the playground became part of a grain field. A cairn at the former school site commemorates local pioneers, teachers and pupils.
Holylea School (no date) by W. C. Hartley
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 20.
Holylea School commemorative monument (September 2011)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.29942, W100.47199
denoted by symbol on the map above
McConnell: Little Town Lost by McConnell Women’s Institute and History Committee, 1979.
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.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 22 January 2021
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