This is an excerpt from the book From Classroom to Battlefield: Victoria High School and the First World War by Victoria resident Barry Gough.
When Victoria High School opened in August 1876, it provided the only opportunity for accessible public post-elementary education in British Columbia. It remained the province’s lone high school until another was opened eight years later at New Westminster.
Nanaimo and Vancouver had high schools soon after that, but Victoria High School, the oldest of its kind west of Winnipeg, and the largest in British Columbia, held the premier position in the province into the 20th century.
In its first year, 60 students attended classes in the small, wooden colonial schoolhouse next to the public primary school, a handsome Italianate two-storey building, with a bell tower, that had been opened to public acclaim just a few months earlier. Both sat on 10 acres set aside as a school reserve between Yates and Fort streets, bordering Fernwood Street. The number of high-school students quickly soared, and eight years later they moved into a purpose-built premises, a single-storey brick addition to the east end of the primary school.
The facility was crowded and noisy, and in 1902 the school moved again, into an elegant facility designed by renowned architect Francis Rattenbury, who had also drawn up plans for the provincial Legislative Buildings, the Empress Hotel and other fine structures. This school bordered on Fernwood Street, on the same public school reserve.
Under E.B. Paul, principal from 1892 to 1908, the school went from three divisions, with as many teachers, to a school of 13 teachers in a newer building that was taxed to the utmost capacity. A teaching colleague remarked that Paul had given the school a high place in public esteem. Not only was the manner in which he conducted affairs most cordial, but the proportion of students graduating had greatly increased, and every year, a higher number of students came from other parts of the province seeking admission.
Victoria grew quickly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and so did the outlying suburbs. Students came to the school from the Gulf Islands or from Gordon Head, Esquimalt, Langford, Cowichan and far beyond. In those days, the feeder schools — Lampson Street, Tolmie, South Park, Bank Street, North Ward and George Jay — were growing quickly, some full to capacity. The intermediate levels of schooling in Victoria were offered at Boys’ Central School and Girls’ Central School.
By 1913, Victoria High School had been housed in its third premises — Rattenbury’s handsome red-brick building — for just over 10 years. The school stood at the top of a gentle rise of spacious ground that extended from the head of View Street right up to Fernwood Street. Its two previous homes, the two-room frame cottage and the brick extension to the government public school, were nearby, and up the gentle slope from the brick structure were assorted frame buildings, including a gymnasium, band room, woodworking shop and boys’ lavatory. However, all signs indicated that the school population had outgrown the existing buildings. Rather than build even more structures on the Yates Street site, it was decided that a new and large plot of land needed to be found, and quickly.
At this time the cities and towns were being pressed by the provincial government of British Columbia to assume a greater share of the costs of education, and thus the City of Victoria, in considering what sort of new high school was to be built and where, had a specific civic duty that it could not leave to some other branch of government. This shift played strongly to Victoria’s civic interests.
That an outstanding principal and administrator of wide vision, perhaps the greatest on record, S.J. Willis, guided the whole process in close association with the Department of Education, headed up by the affable, logical and eminent minister Henry Esson Young, remains an example for all interested in the history of educational administration. Willis was a giant figure in the aggregate, though in person modest and unassuming, and he brought professionalism to his appointment that was a model for many others to follow, both in what became School District 61 (Greater Victoria) and in others farther afield.
In the search for a new site for Victoria High School, one in particular had abiding attraction: the city’s gravel and sand pits that stood on a rise at a place called Spring Ridge, one of the early sources for city water. After a complicated land assembly, and some considerable discussion among interested parties, the city, through a 1910 bylaw, donated the three-and-a-half-acre property to the school trustees. Keen to make the site handsome, the city also granted $7,000 for landscaping. Thus, a magnificent campus became available for what would be an equally magnificent building.
The south boundary faced Grant Street and was also approached by Camosun Street. On the east was Fernwood Street, with Vining Street running into the school grounds as a road access. On the north side lay Gladstone Avenue, and apart from a church (now the Belfry Theatre), the property ran all the way west to a boundary line that lay behind a row of dwellings facing Chambers Street. At the same time, the engineering infrastructure of the Fernwood district was put in, and so the new school site would be served by good roads, sidewalks and a streetcar, No. 3, “The Vic High Special.”
On March 12, 1910, the school board chose C. Elwood Watkins as architect. The project was sent to tender, and Dinsdale & Malcolm’s bid was accepted. The costs of this project were unprecedented for schools in British Columbia, and one reads between the lines concerns about cost overruns. In any event, the site development and building went on marvellously well. Watkins designed one of the iconic buildings of the city, and the school matches in age the McPherson Playhouse (formerly Pantages Theatre) and the Royal Theatre, centrepieces of Victoria cultural expression.
The three buildings are character-defining elements with enduring legacies and regenerative futures. Watkins showcased the best of the Beaux Arts principles. His classical conservatism is disclosed in the building, notably in the granite main entrance, symmetrical facades, the two-storey main entrance crowned by a balustrade, Ionic pilasters framing second-floor windows, and handsome use of rough-cut granite and terracotta and glazed tile. Technically, the school was state of the art, with a teacher’s telephone in each classroom, a centrally regulated wall clock, and thermostat-controlled ventilation. Structurally, too, it was robust: It had reinforced concrete and steel girders, making it seismically stronger than many a building built later.
On Saturday, Sept. 14, 1913, the cornerstone of the new Victoria College and High School — note the name — was laid by the minister of education, the Honourable Henry Esson Young, MD, LLD. A large number of students witnessed the ceremony, as did the teaching staff. The school’s Cadet Battalion formed the honour guard.
“The event marked one of the most important steps in Victoria’s progress in the educational line during the last few years,” commented The Camosun. “Next fall we hope to see the opening of the new structure, which will be an added attraction to the city.”
High expectation was in the air. The Camosun again: “It is very satisfactory to know that the construction work on the new building is being pushed forward as quickly as possible by the contractors. Everything indicates that the school will be ready for use next fall. When completed, it will be one of the most modern of its kind on the continent.”
On a much-anticipated day in April 1914, students lined up at the Rattenbury building and, joining hands, walked north to the new building. Before long, teachers and students had found its various nooks and crannies, perhaps peeped into the boiler room where the mighty heating plant stands, or taken lunch in the cafeteria on the ground floor. The maple-floored gymnasium, with its gallery, was the theatre of unimagined athletic prowess. Way up and under the roof lay a short shooting range. Stained glass windows added light to auditorium and stairwells. Marble entry steps provided grandeur and safety, the magnificent railings and external lighting giving an aura of permanence, of solidity. The front entrance stairs brought visitors to the upper hall, the civic space, while at ground level a Girls Entrance and a Boys Entrance provided the designated points of arrival and departure directly into the school. On the east side of the school, another Girls Entrance gave an approach to the first floor; on the west, similarly, was a second Boys Entrance. This design gave easier and private access to respective washrooms, shower-rooms and gymnasium facilities. All students had their own lockers, a first. Because so many of the teachers had at one time or another attended the same institution, we can imagine their delight at taking up their work in the enhanced space, with room to grow. Classes began on April 20.
When Lt.-Gov. Thomas W. Paterson formally opened the building on May 1, the Daily Colonist described it as “the finest educational institution of its kind west of the Great Lakes.” The handsome auditorium was thronged to capacity. The pupils sat with their teachers on the main floor, while parents and friends of the scholars filled the large balcony. Ferns, flowering broom, and potted plants decorated the stage, while seated on it was the greatest gathering of the principal individuals who had brought about the achievement.
The Board of School Trustees were hosts on the day, for it was their achievement. George Jay, the driving agent, was in the chair. Margaret Jenkins, powerful and popular chair of the finance committee, had steered the project to success at an estimated cost of about $500,000. Young and his wife were in proud attendance, delighted by the process.
S.J. Willis, the principal, received a finely crafted gold key (the whereabouts of which is unknown) with the school’s coat of arms on one side and an inscription on the obverse denoting the presentation. In his response, Willis pointed out that the excellent facility would inspire students to do their best, and he noted the gymnasium, without which a student’s education would not be complete, and the new library. The public could use the magnificent auditorium for its benefit, and he hoped that in the future, noted visitors to the city would speak to the students on matters of moment.
Young, in his remarks, said that the erection of the new high school reflected credit not only on the pupils and teachers but also on the people of Victoria. The people of British Columbia, he noted further, should be proud of the support given by the government to education, and it was a pleasure to the government, and especially to himself as minister of education, that the people provided so much support and sympathy in all matters pertaining to the betterment of educational matters in the province. Not least, great credit was given to Elwood Watkins, the architect.
Prayers of opening and closing were said, God Save the King sung, and the whole lovely afternoon concluded with the high school girls giving a physical drill in the gym. In the evening, the school was open for public viewing (thousands came, it is said), and again the girls executed a maypole dance and physical exercises.
“The gracefulness with which the girls exercised the various movements won for them the praise of the onlookers.” This had been Willis’s day, for he had guided the process through all its awkward stages. His vision for a great structure to house a great, publicly supported institution of learning for the public’s benefit had materialized. The greatest gift had been given to the City of Victoria.
The new building spoke to civic pride and to expectation of greater things to come in the educational line. Here was the school on the hill, visible for miles around, the focal point for the final years for those advancing from elementary levels and for those of academic brilliance who could go on to college-level work. At its opening there were 18 divisions and an estimated 450 students.
There was also room to grow. For many years the high school had offered a commercial class for boys and girls. Technical training classes came after the First World War. As mentioned earlier, students entered by passing an examination. They would enter junior matriculation, and then, if able, senior matriculation.
The Arts I and Arts II years were for those who were in Victoria College. Many of the graduates from senior matriculation went into public-school teaching, which they could do on a provisional permit, and many of the women from the same classes went into nursing, teaching or secretarial work. All the hopes for the future of the society of British Columbia, and of Victoria in particular, rested on the success of the high school, now given its bright new home. With the best teachers that could be hired — for Willis was a stickler on “quality hirings” — a rich history was opening before Victoria High School in 1914.
Excerpted from From Classroom to Battlefield: Victoria High School and the First World War, by Barry Gough. Heritage House, copyright 2014.
