Established in April 1897, in what is now the Municipality of Two Borders, a wood frame schoolhouse was built in 1901 by Melita contractors ? Johnston and George Arthur Pope. The school closed around 1960 and the Peninsula School District was merged into Melita Consolidated School No. 440 in January 1961. Records relating to the school are held at the Antler River Museum in Melita. The building still stands on its original site.
Among the teachers of Peninsula School were Miss Agnes M. Moore (1901), C. A. C. Story (1901), Jessie Fortney (1902, 1904-1906, 1909), Letitia Goudy (1903, 1906-1909), G. W. Graham (1904), Nellie Thompson Elliott (1910-1912), N. Morrow (1913-1914), L. McBain (1915), Marge Sonne (1916), Miss Robinson (1917), Ida Milhousen (1917-1918), Mildred Rogers Elliot (1919), Gladys E. Griffith Goodridge (1920), Catherine McGregor (1921), Elsie Skelton (1922), Ethel Wilde (1923), May Smith Robson (1924-1925), Bertha Wood Lewis (1926), Lillian Balderson Yeo (1927-1933), Ada Thompson Josephson (1934-1935), Lucie Brooks Wardle (1936-1940), Irma Duffy (1941), Calista Atkinson Brown (1942), Gwen McLellan (1943-1944), Yvonne Mason Broome (1945), Fay Coates Watson (1946, 1948), Evelyn Monroe Dell (1947), Olive Trenouth Murray (1949), Leona Weber (1950), Eugene Baker (1951), Leafa A. Hart (1952), Lois Leigh Moore (1953), Joan Stacey Lesy (1954), Mildred Dracek (1955-1956), Janice Hodgson Hryciuw (1957, 1959-1960), and L. H. Bonner (1958).
Peninsula School (no date) by George Hunter
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 21.
The former Peninsula School building with monument in front (July 2010)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
The former Peninsula School building (August 2013)
Source: Rose Kuzina
The former Peninsula School building (September 2021)
Source: Rose Kuzina
Interior of the former Peninsula School building (September 2021)
Source: Rose Kuzina
Interior of the former Peninsula School building (September 2021)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.17746, W101.00356
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: George Arthur Pope (1876-1950)
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.
Our First Century, Town of Melita and Municipality of Arthur: 1884-1984 by Melita-Arthur History Committee, 1983, pages 253-256.
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 Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 3 March 2023
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