Historic Sites of Manitoba: Mountain Road School No. 1432 (RM of Rosedale)

The Mountain Road School District was organized formally in August 1907, and a one-classroom wood frame school building was erected at this site, on SE18-17-16W in the Rural Municipality of Rosedale. A new building was constructed alongside the first one in 1917. With student enrollment growing, the new building had become inadequate by 1924 so the former building, known as the “small school”, was pressed into service for students in grades 1 to 4. The “big school” housed students in grades 5 to 8. Both buildings were used until 1939 when the small school was destroyed by fire, after which all grades were held together.

In 1968, as part of the rural school consolidation movement, the school closed and henceforth students from the area were transported by bus to Eden School or Neepawa School. The school building is no longer present at the site but a commemorative monument for it was dedicated on 24 July 2004.

Among the teachers of Mountain Road School were Fred Klym and Edward John Choptuik (1958-1959).

The original Mountain Road School (circa 1909) Source: Education Department Report, 1909, Manitoba Legislative Library. The two Mountain Road School building, beside the St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church (no date) by W. C. Hartley Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 116. The former Mountain Road School building (circa 1990) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1171. Mountain Road School monument beside one for St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church (July 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.44660, W99.65792 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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.

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

Obituary [Edward John Choptuik], Winnipeg Free Press, 2 October 2021.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 3 October 2021

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