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Photos & Coordinates | Sources
The Parkdale School District was organized formally in April 1918 and was comprised of Lots 45-59 of the Rural Municipality of West St. Paul and Lots 1-8 of the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews. Children within the catchment area continued attending St. Andrews School until summer of that year. Initially, the district opted to not build its own school, either making pupil transfer arrangements with other nearby school districts, including as far away as Centennial School within West Kildonan School District No. 8 and within the Selkirk School District No. 69, or not operating. The district was partially formed from catchment which previously belonged to the Parks Creek School District No. 3, which was the original school district that provided local instruction until consolidating into the St. Andrews School District No. 2 in 1910.
Stated plans for construction of a two-room brick schoolhouse were made when the district was formed, however a wooden structure would be built instead, located on Lot 2 of St. Andrews, immediately north of the Parrish Farms along Main Street [later Highway 4; now Provincial Trunk Highway 9], on the west side of the highway and south of Parks Creek. Nearby was the Parkdale Station of the Winnipeg Selkirk & Lake Winnipeg Railway. Local classroom instruction began in 1924.
During the Second World War, consideration was given by the provincial goverment to re-purpose the schoolhouse (which was still seeing school utilization) for the relocated Manitoba Home for Boys which was displaced from their Portage la Prairie location and residing in temporary quarters at the Whiteshell Provincial Park, north of Rennie, though ultimately not selected.
The school closed in the summer of 1959. In July 1959, the district became part of the Seven Oaks Consolidated School District No. 2375 (which became the Seven Oaks School Division). The Parkdale School name was re-used by the Flin Flon School District No. 2228 for an educational facility of the same name.
Put up for sale by the Seven Oaks School Division in November 1964, the school building was purchased by the St. George’s Wakefield Anglican Church in February 1965 and the schoolhouse relocated to N50.27420, W96.97591 next to the church for use as a parish hall and Sunday School quarters.
Among the teachers at Parkdale School were John William Lawbe Doubleday (Spring 1919 - Spring 1920, via Centennial School), did not operate (Fall 1920 - Spring 1923), W? Dickinson (Fall 1923 - Spring 1924, via Selkirk School District), Rhoda Gayton Brown (Fall 1924 - Spring 1927), Alma E. Campbell (Fall 1927 - Spring 1929), Edna Jean Johnstone (Fall 1929 - Spring 1931), Joseph Caswell Forbes (Fall 1931 - Spring 1932), Hugh Forbes (Fall 1932 - Spring 1936), Ila Thelma Cockriell (Fall 1936), Kathleen Ethel Larter (Spring 1937 - Fall 1941), Jean Noble Coutts Moyer (Fall 1942 - Spring 1951), Marie Jeanne “Jean” Perreault (substitute, pt Spring 1943), and Miss R. Guttormsson (substitute, pt Fall 1947), Alice Mary Wehrle (Fall 1951 - Spring 1953), Louise Jones (Fall 1953 - Spring 1956), Rose Bazan (Fall 1956 - Spring 1957), Rose Klym (Fall 1957 - Spring 1958 & Spring 1959), and Patricia Anne Woloshyn Bazan (Fall 1958).
Parkdale School (no date) by H. D. Cumming
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 61.
The former Parkdale School building next to St. George’s Wakefield Anglican Church (July 2012)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.03475, W97.04109
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: St. George’s Wakefield Anglican Church and Cemetery (RM of St. Andrews)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Parks Creek School District No. 3 (RM of St. Andrews)
Board of Education registers (A 0050), GR7643, Archives of Manitoba.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
Board of Education meeting minutes and office files (A 0052), GR1622, Archives of Manitoba.
School division and school district formation files (E 0027), Parkdale School District No. 1927, GR1688, Archives of Manitoba.
School division and school district formation files (E 0027), Seven Oaks Consolidated School District No. 2375, GR1688, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Rural Municipality of St. Andrews fonds (ZZ 0038), Assessment Rolls, GR4172, Archives of Manitoba.
“By John Taylor,” Manitoba Free Press, 16 December 1926, page 2.
“Home for Boys may be moved,” Winnipeg Free Press, 12 June 1941, page 5.
“14 - Tenders [Tenders for reflooring of Parkdale School ...],” Winnipeg Free Press, 5 May 1953, page 24.
“Fewer fancy frills in old days, declares veteran school trustee,” Winnipeg Free Press, 27 February 1954, page 3.
“14 - Tenders [Tenders for Painting interior and washing windows of Parkdale School No. 1927 ...,” Winnipeg Free Press, 5 July 1954, page 27.
“Tenders [Automatic forced air heating system required for Parkdale School],” Winnipeg Free Press, 26 May 1955, page 40.
“14 - Tenders [Tenders are invited for the under piling of Parkdale School],” Winnipeg Free Press, 2 June 1956, page 16.
“14 - Tenders [Parkdale School Dist. No. 1927,” Winnipeg Tribune, 16 May 1958, page 31.
“For sale and removal,” Winnipeg Free Press, 20 November 1964, page 10.
“Clandeboye briefs of 1965,” Selkirk Enterprise, 12 January 1966, page 12.
“Clandeboye mini Christmas concert,” Selkirk Enterprise, 24 January 1968, page 4.
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
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.
St. Andrews Public Access Map, Red River Planning District.
We thank Gordon Goldsborough for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 2 July 2023
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