Historic Sites of Manitoba: St. Boniface Normal School / le Jardin de l’Enfance / Ecole Menagere Notre Dame (210 rue Masson, Winnipeg)

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

This one-storey brick and stone building was designed by architect Henry Sandham Griffith, and built in 1903 at a cost of about $20,000 by contractor Joseph-Azarie Senecal. It featured four classrooms on its main floor, with a library, laboratory, parlour, kitchen, dining hall, and dormitory. A recreation room and mechanical appliancees were in its basement.

The building was used to provide bilingual training for French teachers until 1923 when the provincial government repealed part of the Public Schools Act and teacher training became English only.

The building was purchased in 1923 by Les Missionnaires Oblates (Oblate Sisters) and converted to a boys’ residential school (le Jardin de l’Enfance). A two-storey addition was made on the west side in 1928. Ten years later, the facility became a domestic training centre for girls known as Ecole Menagere Notre Dame.

The school had ceased operations by 1972. The building was converted to housing for elderly people and renamed Foyer Notre Dame, later Residence Langevin. It was sold by the Oblate Sisters in 1980 and subsequently connected by a one-storey addition to the 147-suite Accueil Colombien at 200 rue Masson. The building is a municipally-designated historic site.

Principals

Period	Principal
1900-?	Roger Goulet (1867-1946)

Teachers

No information

Photos & Coordinates

Postcard view of St. Boniface Normal School (no date) Source: Rob McInnes Postcard view of Ecole Menagere Notre Dame (circa 1943) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2017-0088 The former St. Boniface Normal School (May 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough The former St. Boniface Normal School (January 2018) Source: Gordon Goldsborough The former St. Boniface Normal School (November 2021) Source: George Penner Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.89145, W97.12041 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon Normal School / Model Room School / Agricultural Extension Centre (1129 Queens Street, Brandon)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Dauphin Normal School / Whitmore School (First Street SW, Dauphin)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitou Normal School (Main Street, Manitou, Municipality of Pembina)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Central School / Portage Normal School / Prince Charles School (Third Street Southwest, Portage la Prairie)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: St. Boniface Normal School (210 rue Masson, Winnipeg)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitoba School for the Deaf (500 Shaftesbury, Winnipeg)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Mulvey School (750 Wolseley Avenue, Winnipeg)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Central School No. 944 (1899-1954)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Old Central School (Tenth Street, Brandon)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Victoria School (32 Fifth Street SE, Portage la Prairie)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Municipally Designated Historic Sites

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Abandoned Manitoba

Sources:

Public Buildings Erected and Improved by the Government of Manitoba during the Years 1900-1906, Government of Manitoba, December 1906. [Copy at Archives of Manitoba]

Annual Report of the City of Winnipeg Historical Buildings Committee, 2005.

St. Boniface Normal School / Residence Langevin (210 rue Masson), Winnipeg Historical Buildings Committee, July 1989.

We thank Rob McInnes and Ed Rootsaert for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 4 May 2023

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