Link to:
Photos & Coordinates | Sources
The Pinawa School District was established in May 1912 and a schoolhouse operated in the community of Old Pinawa (as opposed to the present village of Pinawa) that developed around the Pinawa hydroelectric power station, in the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet. As founded, the districts catchment area comprised of only three sections; Section 6 (Township 15 Range 12 East) and Sections 31 & 32 (Township 14 Range 12 East), with the first schoolhouse located in 32-14-12 East. To raise funds for needed improvements, the district issued two debentures in 1918. In July, $2,000 was authorized to aquire a new school site as well as build and equip said schoolhouse, followed with a further $1,000 in November to complete the construction and furnishing of the building. This schoolhouse was located in subdivision 13 at the northeast corner of NW32-14-12E. Between 1919 and 1923, the districts catchment area was increased three-fold. In May 1923, another debenture of $2,300 was issued for constrution of a four-room teacherage.
Among the teachers of Pinawa School were Charlotte Tyrrell (Fall 1912 - pt Spring 1913), Laura Hinchliffe (pt Spring 1913, Spring 1917), B. Williams (Fall 1913 - Spring 1914), Marguerite Crease (Fall 1914 - Spring 1915), Jean Wallace (Fall 1915 - Spring 1916), Mary Colman (Fall 1916), G. W. Bailey (Fall 1917), Muriel McDonald (January-March 1918), school closed (1-23 April 1918), Eliza Chambers (April-June 1918, September 1918 - June 1919), school closed due to influenza and teacher illness (November-December 1918), Miss C. L. Bass (September-December 1919), Mr. P. Kearns (January-April 1920), S. William Hodgson (April-June 1920, September-December 1920), Myrtle G. Rusenel (January-June 1921), Mary Hodgson (Fall 1921 - Spring 1922), Mrs. Arnot Taylor (September 1922 - March 1923, wife of Arnot Taylor), S. M. Burridge (March-June 1923), Thomas Henry Shakespeare (Fall 1923 - Spring 1929), school closed due to measles and scarlet fever outbreak (8-25 February 1927), school closed due to infant paralysis in town (4-14 September 1928), Mary Anne “Maryanne” Hilliard (Fall 1929 - Spring 1933), school closed due to illness (6-12 & 18-22 January 1932), Harold Steeves (Fall 1933 - Fall 1940), Joseph William Gordon (Spring 1941 - Spring 1942), Gladys A. Cline (Fall 1942 - Spring 1943), Anton Solar (Fall 1943 - Spring 1944), Shirley K. Watchorn (Fall 1944 - Spring 1945), Pollyanne Victoria Moen (Fall 1945 - Fall 1946), Margaret Rose Wright (Spring 1947), Allan Joseph Sargent (Fall 1947 - Spring 1950), Soren Bernhard Jorgenson (Fall 1950 - Spring 1951), Ceril Charles? Winters (Fall 1951), Geneva Grace [Grae/Gray] Rowan Mattern (Spring 1952), and Edith Elizabeth Bowman (Fall 1952 - Spring 1953).
The school last operated its own classroom for the duration of the 1952-1953 school year, having had only seven pupils in attendance. Starting the next school year, the few students present were transported elsewhere. In 1955, the school suffered vandalism damages and administration of the district withdrawn from local hands. In 1956, Angus Albert MacDonald of Winnipeg was appointed as the Official Trustee. In January 1966, the district was dissolved into the Lac du Bonnet Consolidated School, which became a part of the Agassiz School Division. The former school building is no longer present at the site but a monument commemorates it.
Pinawa School (no date) by J. E. S. Dunlop
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 6.
Pinawa School commemorative monument (September 2013)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Pinawa School commemorative monument (November 2023)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.21714, W95.92763
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Pinawa Hydroelectric Power Dam (Winnipeg River, RM of Lac du Bonnet)
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.
Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #40 School District of Pinawa, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.
Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #45 School District of Pinawa, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.
Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #49 School District of Pinawa, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Pinawa School District No. 1627 - Daily Register, GR1629, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Pinawa School District No. 1627 - Minute Book, GR1629, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Pinawa School District No. 1627 - Cash Book, GR1629, Archives of Manitoba.
Trustee records regarding geographically remote schools directly administered by Department (E 0166), File 1627 - Pinawa - Permanent, GR1206, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Orders-In-Council (EC 0003B), Order-in-Council #1670/56, GR0589, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Pinawa School District No. 1627 - Daily Registers, GR3599, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 25 June 2025
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