Historic Sites of Manitoba: Hudson’s Bay Company Store / Seven Sisters Post Office / Seven Sisters Falls School No. 2218 (Seven Sisters Falls, RM of Whitemouth)

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

This building at Seven Sisters Falls in the Rural Municipality of Whitemouth 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 school closed in 1967 and, the following year, the district was dissolved and its catchment area became part of the Agassiz School Division.

The building is used as a local training and conference centre by Manitoba Hydro.

Principals

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 Strick

Teachers

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).

Photos & Coordinates

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 Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.11470, W96.01717 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

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

Sources:

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.

We thank George Penner and Manny Jacob for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Robert Porth and Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 18 July 2023

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