The Belair School District was organized formally in January 1927 and a one-room schoolhouse operated at the southeast corner of SW9-19-7E in what later became the Rural Municipality of Alexander. The original log building was replaced in 1960 by a new structure, opened with a ribbon cutting by local resident Upton Lester who purchased the older school and moved it to his property. In 1967, the district was dissolved and its catchment area became part of the Lord Selkirk School Division. The former schoolhouse was moved beside the Walter Whyte School and used as a teacherage.
Among the teachers of Belair School was Tannis Marian Cuddy (1933-1934, daughter of Thomas Hughes Cuddy, wife of Alexander Upton Lester) and Edith Maud Lester (1944-1960).
The first Belair School (no date) by J. E. S. Dunlop
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 107.Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.60692, W96.56510
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Walter Whyte School (Grand Marais, RM of Alexander)
School District Formation Files [Belair School District No. 2165], GR1688, E0027, 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.
Obituary [Tannis M. Lester], Winnipeg Free Press, 6 February 1995, page 13.
We thank Sharon Parker for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 4 February 2025
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