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Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources
This one and a half storey frame and stucco building on Elizabeth Crescent in Seven Sisters Falls in the Rural Municipality of Whitemouth, measuring 48 feet by 110 feet, was constructed in 1929 by the construction firm of Carter-Halls-Aldinger. When completed, it housed a Hudson's Bay Company store, post office, two-classroom school, teachers' living quarters, company office, and library.
The Seven Sisters Falls School opened in 1929 and a school district was established formally in May 1930. It was operated by the Winnipeg Electric Company, and later the Manitoba Power Commission and Manitoba Hydro, for the children of workers at the nearby Seven Sisters Hydroelectric Generating Station. The district was dissolved in 1967 and its catchment area became part of the Agassiz School Division, with the school closing its doors to pupils on 28 June 1968.
The building is used as a local training and conference centre by Manitoba Hydro.
Period
Principal
1938-1940
John S. Scott
1940-1949
John Erle Outhwaite (1920-2018)
1949-1951
?
1951-1961
Ewart David Carruthers (1926-1992)
1961-1967
Lawrence William “Lorne” Strick (1935-2019)
1967-1968
Shirley Judith Powlowski
Among the teachers who worked at Seven Sisters Falls School through the years were James Dark (1930), William R. Lee (1933), Gordon Jorgenson (1937-1940), Earle Outhwaite (1942-1949), and Gertude G. Cousins (1945-1967).
Period
Teachers
1967-1968
Shirley Judith Powlowski (grades 4-6), Janet Christine Stewart (grades 1-3)
Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store under construction (1929)
Source: Winnipeg Tribune, 25 May 1929, page 6.
Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (1930)
Source: Lac du Bonnet and District Museum
Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (no date) by J. H. Plewes
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 117.
Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (September 1947)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, George Harris Fonds, Acc. 1979-141, P7452, Album 18, Page 39.
The former Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1480.
The former Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (1992)
Source: George Penner
The former Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (April 2010)
Source: Manny Jacob
The former Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (October 2013)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
The former Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (July 2020)
Source: George Penner
The former Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (August 2024)
Source: Rose Kuzina
The former Seven Sisters Falls School, Post Office, and Store (August 2024)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.11470, W96.01717
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Manitoba Business: Carter-Halls-Aldinger / Commonwealth Construction Company
Manitoba Business: Winnipeg Electric Railway Company / Winnipeg Electric Company
MHS Centennial Business: Hudson’s Bay Company
Manitoba Business: Manitoba Power Commission / Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board / Winnipeg Hydro / Manitoba Hydro
“Vulcan iron works $50,000 warehouse,” Manitoba Free Press, 19 May 1929, page 56.
“Construction at Seven Sisters,” Winnipeg Tribune, 25 May 1929, page 6.
“Steady progress made on Seven Sisters Falls development,” Winnipeg Tribune, 16 November 1929, page 25.
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
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.
Trails to Rails to Highways edited by Bob Porth and Craig MacKenzie, Whitemouth Municipal Museum Society, 1979.
“Seven Sisters Falls School committee plans reunion,” Lac du Bonnet Leader, 15 March 1988, page 11.
“Seven Sisters Falls school reunion was an overwhelming success,” Lac du Bonnet Leader, 6 September 1988, page 18.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Seven Sisters Falls School District No. 2218 Daily Registers, GR0565, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank George Penner, Manny Jacob, Nathan Kramer, and Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Robert Porth and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 6 April 2025
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