The Lavender School District was organized formally in July 1900 and a one-room schoolhouse was constructed on the northeast corner of NW32-37-27W in what is now the Municipality of Swan Valley West. In 1907, when Bowsman School was opened, the schoolhouse was moved two miles west, to SW6-38-27W. It was replaced at the site by a modern building in 1952 and the former school building was moved to another location where it was used as a garage and workshop. The school closed permanently in June 1967 and the district was dissolved later that year. Its catchment area became part of the Swan Valley School Division. The building continued in use as the Lavender Community Centre. A monument at the site commemorates the former school.
Among the teachers of Lavender School were Edith B. Sterns (1906), L. W. Burry (1906), and Mary Blaylock (1966-1967).
The first Lavender School building (no date) by J. S. Peach
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 55.
The second Lavender School building (no date)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Lavender School commemorative monument beside the Lavender Community Centre (June 2015)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N52.23111, W101.32279
denoted by symbol on the map above
School District Formation Files [Lavender School District No. 1082], GR1688, E0027, Archives of Manitoba.
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.
Boots, Buggies & Buses: Swan Valley Schools in Quest of Education, Swan Valley School Division No. 35, circa 1998.
We thank David and Arlene Blaylock for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 28 April 2021
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