Historic Sites of Manitoba: Mountainside School No. 248 (Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester)

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

The Mountainside School District was formally established in February 1884 and the first classes were held in a vacant log house belonging to farmer Andy Wightman. In 1888, a school building was erected on the northeast quarter of 36-2-22 west of the Principal Meridian, in the Rural Municipality of Winchester. It was moved to a larger site in 1898, at NE24-2-22W. In May 1920, it joined with Gordon Lake School No. 2028 to form Mountainside Consolidated School No. 248.

In August 1928, a new two-classroom schoolhouse was built, featuring a basement and furnace. With growing enrollment, a third classroom was added in 1954, one of which was used as a high school until 1961 when students were bussed to Deloraine Collegiate. The remaining rooms were closed in January 1967, the district was dissolved, and the remaining students went to Deloraine Consolidated School No. 2448. The school building was sold and moved to a farmyard at N49.16388, W100.30185 where it was used as a workshop. A cairn commemorating the school was erected at the site in 1971 by the Mountainside Community Club. A second plaque was attached to the cairn at a reunion held on 13 August 2000.

Principals

Period	Principal
1952-1953	Loreen Turner
1953-1954	Theodore Joseph Lismer (?-2023)
1954-1955	W. B. Deering
1955-1956	Mrs. L. R. Sutherland
1956-1958	Florence Mary Richtik Brooks (1930-1999)
1958-1960	Miss Lorraine S. Lesy

Teachers

Among the other teachers of Mountainside School were J. D. Mills (1897), Miss Cline, Miss Catherine Ross, Miss Irma Bowl, Mr. Gray, Mary Geldof, Minnie McKague, Isabell Pottinger, Miss Cobough, Miss Colthart, Miss Martinson, Wyneta Pascoe, Kathleen Ashworth, Bernice Burton, Grace Andrews, Goodie Martins, Marjorie Aldis, Louise Ruttledge, Jessie Wichman, Jack Ingot, Connie Davidson, Theodore Koke, Ruth Roberts, Frazer Robin, Yvette Verpoorte, Margaret Warkentine, Mrs. Stevens, Garnet Stevens, Ruth McGuiness, Ann Christianson, Ruth Turner Sutherland, Ted Lezakowsky, Mary Bocek, L. Carter, Margaret Griffith, Jean Mains, Diane Andries, Elsie Maxwell, Joan Dumbleton, Charles McLarty, Helen Hole, Mr. Izzard, Loraine Hudson, Ruby Chambers, Louise Challner, Audrey Mogk, Gertie Henderson, and Isobel St. Clair Loutit.

Photos & Coordinates

Mountainside School (no date) by George Hunter Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 2. The former Mountainside School building (circa 1990) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1497. The former Mountainside School building (May 2013) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Mountainside School commemorative monument (October 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.14651, W100.28774 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Mountainside Town Site (Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester)

Sources:

“The Indian famine fund,” Winnipeg Tribune, 4 March 1897, page 4.

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.

Deloraine Scans a Century: 1880-1980 by Deloraine History Book Committee, 1980, pages 144-145.

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

We thank Doug Morrison for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 30 June 2023

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