Historic Sites of Manitoba: Roland Schools Monument (Roland, RM of Roland)

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

Before the town of Roland began, Lowestoft School No. 509 was built in 1888 at SE28-4-4W, approximately three kilometres southeast of the eventual town site. Pupils from the surrounding district, as well as the developing town, which began in 1889, received their early education at this school. The first teacher, hired in 1888, was Miss Maggie Brooks.

With the development of Roland, it was decided to build a two-room school in the town in 1898, on the site of the present school. Because the school developed so rapidly, this school proved to be inadequate and a larger, two-storey brick school was built in 1904, at a cost of $9,000, on a design by Winnipeg architect Henry Sandham Griffith.

The 1904 school served the community until 1959 when a modern one-storey brick school was built on a design by the Winnipeg architectural firm of Ward and Macdonald. It featured six classrooms and two assembly-rooms/classrooms. In 1961, an addition to the school was made due to increased enrolment. Fire destroyed this school on 23 March 1967. By the Fall of 1967, a new school was built to serve the elementary students only. From then on, high school students were transported to Carman or Miami.

Principals

Period	Principal
1900-1903	A. E. Vrooman
1903-1906	W. G. Dunkley
1906-1908	Henry Edward Chaplin (1876-1935)
1908-1909	Thomas Walter Halligan (1875-1934)
1909-1910	Norman Brett
1910-1914	Winfred Elmore Marsh (1872-1932)
1915-1916	George Robert Farrar Prowse (1860-1946)
1916-1919	William John Gordon Scott (1885-1953)
1919-1920	G. O. Durnin
1920-1921	Edmund Herbert Leighton (1883-1954)
1921-1924	F. H. Anderson
1924-1927	Dwight Nugent Ridd (1900-1976)
1927-1935	George Patrick Stevens (c1888-1988)
1935-1941	Eleanor Boyce (1898-1997)
1941-1942	Ross Emerson Vasey (1910-2001)
1942-1943	M. G. Lysenko
1943-1956	Victor Harvey Hugo (1888-1972)
1956-1957	G. A. Hamel
1957-1961	David Wallace Shaw (1932-2008)
1961-1964	A. L. Petkau
1964-1966	N. J. McQuarrie
1966-1967	Walter Abram Toews (1923-2006)
?-?	Dorothy Irene Madill Hudson (1931-2014)

Teachers

No information.

Photos & Coordinates

Roland School (1913) Source: Archives of Manitoba, Roland - School. Postcard view of the Roland School (no date) Source: Rob McInnes, MN0316. Roland School (no date) by J. W. Gibson Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2015-0053 Roland Schools commemorative sign (September 2010) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.36599, W97.93547 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Rowland School No. 470 (RM of Prairie Lakes)

Sources:

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

“Tenders for Roland School,” Winnipeg Free Press, 11 May 1959, page 38.

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.

We thank Rob McInnes and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 23 December 2022

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