Historic Sites of Manitoba: Loudoun School No. 1511 (3350 Wilkes Avenue, Winnipeg)

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

The Loudoun School District was established in July 1909 and tenders for a $2,000 schoolhouse called for in November 1909. It was constructed along Wilkes Avenue in the Municipality of Charleswood (now Winnipeg) at its intersection with Loudoun Road. The first class was held in September 1910 with 19 students. In 1920 the school was rebuilt and a full basement was added. The structure measured 25 feet wide by 25 feet deep by 13 feet high. By 1938, there were 48 students. The building lacked any running water and had no electric lighting, something which a School Inspector's report of September 1949 recommended attending to, either via renovation of the present building or construction of a new school facility.

Tenders were called in March 1950, with two debentures ($12,000 initially, with a further $3,000 later approved) issued to finance the undertaking. The new one-room school was built in 1951, located slightly to the west at the intersection of Wilkes and Elmhurst, where electricity and city water would be available. A one-room addition was built in 1957 and funded via a $15,000 debenture. In January 1963, the district became part of the Charleswood Consolidated School No. 2327. The school closed in September 1968 and the remaining students went to other facilities of the Assiniboine South School Division.

The former two-room school building remains on the site and is used by the Pembina Trails School Division as a school bus dispatch facility.

Principals

Period

Principal

1957-1958

Damaris Robinson

1958-1959

Mary Charlotte Pinn McLachlan (1907-1984)

1959-1960

Anne Davidchuk Waschuk (1936-2021)

1960-1961

Ronald Willard McPhedrain

1961-1964

Margaretha May “Rita” Wiebe

Teachers

Among the early teachers of Loudoun School were Myrtle Disney (Spring 1910), Mabel E. Whyte [White] (Fall 1910 - Fall 1911), Margaret Garland (Spring-Fall 1912), Amanda Byrne (Spring 1913 - Fall 1915), Agnes Beswell Davidson (Spring 1916 - Fall 1917, Fall 1918 - Spring 1920), E. M. Bennett (January 1918), Caroline J. Stephan (February-June 1918), school closed due to influenza (pt October - November 1918), Jessie Middleton (Fall 1920), Violet M. Clements (Spring 1921), Marguerite E. Abbott (Fall 1921 - Spring 1922, daughter of Reverend Wesley Watson Abbott), Herbert Newson Baxter (Fall 1922 - Spring 1923), Clara Taylor (Fall 1923 - February 1927), Lydia Yager (March 1927 - Spring 1929), Gladys L. Lovering (Fall 1929 - Spring 1930), Ida Waldon (Fall 1930 - October 1934), Mary Arden Gwendolyn Newell (October 1934 - Spring 1936), Alma Emily Yager (Fall 1936 - Spring 1940), Hester Doveta [Dorreta?] Armstrong (Fall 1940 - Spring 1943), Bertha May Blackburn Ellison (Fall 1943 - Spring 1945), Miss E. M. Zilkie (August-November 1945), Elsie Dugard (November 1945 - Spring 1948), Constance Marion Cox (Fall 1948 - Spring 1949), Stella Poberzny (Fall 1949 - Spring 1950), Evelyn Ruth Black (Fall 1950 - Spring 1952), Nesta Esme Trevenen? [Treveor?] (Fall 1952), Archibald Lewis Goodbun (Spring 1953), and Damaris Robinson (Fall 1953 - Spring 1956).

Period

Teachers

1956-1957

Damaris Robinson (grades 1-8)

1957-1958

Damaris Robinson (grades 4-9), Anne Davidchuk Waschuk (grades 1-4)

1958-1959

Mary Charlotte McLachlan (grades 5-9), Anne Davidchuk Waschuk (grades 1-4)

1959-1960

Anne Davidchuk Waschuk (grades 5-8), Iris Mabel Thompson Winning (grades 1-4)

1960-1961

Ronald Willard McPhedrain (grades 5-8), Iris Mabel Thompson Winning (grades 1-4)

1961-1962

Margaretha May “Rita” Wiebe (grades 5-8), Iris Mabel Thompson Winning (grades 1-4)

1962-1963

Margaretha May “Rita” Wiebe (grades 5-8), Iris Mabel Thompson Winning (grades 1-4)

1963-1964

Frances Mary Hutmacher (grades 1-3), Margaretha May “Rita” Wiebe (grades 5-8)

1964-1965

Frances Mary Hutmacher (grades 1-4)

1965-1966

Frances Mary Hutmacher (grades 1-3)

1966-1967

Frances Mary Hutmacher (grades 1-3)

1967-1968

Frances Mary Hutmacher (grades 1-3)

1968-1969

(September only): Frances Mary Hutmacher (grades 1-3)

Photos & Coordinates

The original Loudoun School building

The original Loudoun School building (no date)
Source: Len Van Roon

The interior of the original Loudoun School

The interior of the original Loudoun School (no date)
Source: Len Van Roon

The final Loudoun School

The final Loudoun School (August 2020)
Source: Nathan Kramer

The final Loudoun School

The final Loudoun School (August 2020)
Source: Nathan Kramer

The final Loudoun School

The final Loudoun School (September 2022)
Source: Nathan Kramer

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.84226, W97.25802
denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

“Notice - Rural Municipality of Assiniboia,” Manitoba Free Press, 22 October 1909, page 2.

“Tenders [Loudoun School District],” Manitoba Free Press, 12 November 1909, page 2.

“Notice - Rural Municipality of Assiniboia,” Manitoba Free Press, 22 October 1909, page 2.

“Teacher wanted [Wanted - School teacher for the school district of Poudon; sic],” Winnipeg Tribune, 8 March 1910, page 9.

1921 Canada census, Library and Archives Canada.

Death registrations [Herbert Newson Baxter], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“Inquest on Lieut. Baxter, drowning victim, opened,” Winnipeg Free Press, 1 May 1930, page 13.

“Tenders,” Winnipeg Free Press, 24 March 1950, page 26.

“Tenders for construction of one room school in the Municipality of Charleswood,” Winnipeg Tribune, 30 March 1950, page 34.

“Notice,” Winnipeg Tribune, 25 May 1950, page 18.

“Notice,” Winnipeg Tribune, 18 August 1950, page 17.

“Tenders - Tenders will be accepted for the purchase of Loudoun School property [...],” Winnipeg Free Press, 6 November 1950, page 21.

“The School District of Loudoun No. 1511 - Notice of Tender,” Winnipeg Free Press, 8 June 1957, page 28.

“Loudoun School District 1511,” Winnipeg Free Press, 8 April 1958, page 25.

Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), Archives of Manitoba.

School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.

Manitoba School Records Collection, Loudoun School District #1511 - Daily Registers, GR10356, Archives of Manitoba.

Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #30 School District of Carman, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.

Municipal borrowing files (MA 0039), Loudoun School District #1511, GR1799, 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.

Photos & Fragments of Charleswood History: A Collection of Historic Photographs of Our Community and the Stories They Tell by Len Van Roon & Verna Van Roon, 2003.

Obituary [Iris Mabel Winning (c1940-2017)], Winnipeg Free Press, 18 March 2017, page A30.

Obituary [Frances Mary Hutmacher(1913-2017)], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 April 2017, page A28.

We thank Len Van Roon for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer and Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 11 February 2024

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