McKay Avenue School

McKay Avenue School is a former school and historic site in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The site is a Provincial and Municipal Historic Resource, and home to the Edmonton Public School Board's archives and museum.

McKay Avenue School
McKay Avenue School in 2012
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Museum
Architectural style	Richardsonian Romanesque
Address	10425 99th Avenue NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Coordinates	53°32′12.77″N 113°30′00.53″W
Named for	Dr. William MacKay
Construction started	1904
Completed	1905
Client	Edmonton Public Schools
Design and construction
Architect	Henry Denny Johnson
Website
archivesmuseum.epsb.ca
Alberta Historic Resources Act
Official name	McKay Avenue School
Designated	18 May 1976

History

The original one-room school house was constructed in 1881 on land donated by the Hudson's Bay Company, using funds raised by Matthew McCauley, Malcolm Groat and William Rowland. The smooth-finished wooden building featured a porch, double doors, eight large windows and ten-foot ceilings.[1]

The growing population of Edmonton required the construction of a larger school house. Architect Henry Denny Johnson would be contracted to design the three-storey, eight-room school on the site of the original 1881 school house. Johnson would utilize the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. In 1904 R. J. Mason[1] would receive the contract to build the school, and construction would begin later in the year with Governor General, Lord Minto laying the cornerstone, and construction completed and opened on 1 September 1905, the same day the province of Alberta would enter Confederation.[1][2][3] Construction would not start on the Alberta Legislature Building until 1907, and be completed until 1913, so the Legislative Assembly of Alberta would use the McKay Avenue School for the first two sessions of the First Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 1906 and 1907.[2] Important bills passed in those sessions include confirming Edmonton as the provincial capital, the founding of the University of Alberta, establishment of provincial courts, and the provision of charters for several railway companies.[2] The school was named after Dr. William MacKay, a physician for the Hudson's Bay Company, although the building retains the misspelled McKay name.[2]

With dwindling enrollment in the downtown Edmonton area, totaling 59 in its final year, the McKay Avenue School was closed on June 30, 1983.[1]

Edmonton Public Schools Archives and Museum

The Edmonton Public Schools Archives and Museum is located in the McKay Avenue School.[4] The organization is a public research facility housing records and artifacts related to Edmonton Public Schools. It also offers curriculum-based, hands-on education programs for students and a museum highlighting the history of Edmonton Public Schools and Alberta's early political history. The museum features a 1950s-period schoolroom and the restored 1906 legislative assembly room. Between 2019 and 2020, the museum was the site of a traveling exhibition from the Anne Frank House.[5]

Following flooding in February 2013, the McKay School was found have significant structural damage requiring $2.4-million in restoration. A fund raising campaign began with saw the Edmonton Public School Board, City of Edmonton, Government of Alberta, Government of Canada and private donors raise the necessary funds to repair the building by 2016.[6] The renovated building would reopen to the public in October 2018.[7]

The museum also includes the original 1880s schoolhouse adjacent to the McKay Avenue School, which the McKay Avenue School replaced in 1905.[3] The schoolhouse is used for museum education programs.

References

1. Brownoff, Leanne (17 November 2017). "#Landmarks: McKay Avenue School echoes Edmonton's past". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
2. "McKay Avenue School". Heritage Resources Management Information System. Government of Alberta. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
3. Paula Simons (September 25, 2014). "Can we save McKay Avenue School? Or is our history doomed to be history?". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
4. "First Legislature of Alberta". Archives Society of Alberta. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
5. "Anne Frank-A History For Today". Edmonton Public Schools. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
6. Theobald, Claire (13 October 2016). "McKay Avenue School renovation cash will allow students to continue to be 'time travellers'". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
7. Lamb, Adrienne; Bremness, Rick (27 October 2018). "Renovated McKay Avenue School transports Edmontonians back in time". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Edmonton. Retrieved 21 July 2020.

External links

• Edmonton Public Schools Archives and Museum
• McKay Avenue School. Canadian Register of Historic Places.