As we settle into “the new normal” in the classroom, we look back at a time when Cochrane didn’t have a high school.
Public library archivist Ardis Proulx-Chedore says in the spring of 1927, Premier G. Howard Ferguson – does that name ring a bell? – who was also education minister, visited Cochrane and founded the high school
“Three teachers and a principal were responsible for teaching the upper school courses at Lakeview Hall, which was secured from the Knights of Columbus,” she relates. “The premier as well as a few others declared Lakeview was unfit and needed a new building.”
Proulx-Chedore says there were three potential sites.
“The one near Lady Minto Hospital was considered too far from the main population. The land between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues was too expensive. And the area on the peninsula deemed too restricting.”
Ultimately, the peninsula site won out, when town officials agreed to extend the grounds so it would be suitable for a school.
Construction began that summer, and the school was officially opened in January, 1928.
Ardis Proulx-Chedore is the host of “Archives Live”, every Friday afternoon at 2:30 on the library’s Facebook page.