In the early years, the school also served as a community church and a leaky pump organ was kept in the building for use on Sunday mornings. Many large windows ran the length of the structure to give natural light to compensate for the lack of electric lamps (still 19 years away).Ī hand pump at the exterior of the building delivered water for washing up and for drinking and a handy man chopped the wood that fed the stove located in the rear of the school room – making the students at the back too hot and those at the front too cold. The building was of a typical design for small rural schools of the period and likely followed guidelines set out by the provincial government of the time, which was a single room rectangular building topped with a hipped roof. While school names today celebrate the history of the community (Edith McDermott elementary, Davie Jones elementary) this first school was simply known as Number 1 School Pitt Meadows.Ī fledgling Pitt Meadows School Board was responsible for running the facility, including retaining the first school teacher, Maud Paton, who worked for the princely sum of $50 per month and lodging in a house located near the school site. The one-room building was located at the corner of Harris and Hammond roads on land donated by W.R. The community’s first school opened in 1909, five years before the district of Pitt Meadows incorporated and when the area’s population had not yet topped 100. ![]() ![]() 4, hundreds of Pitt Meadows children headed back to four multi-room elementary schools, all of them equipped with the luxuries of modern life – electric lights, indoor plumbing and central heat.īut 113 years ago, when the first school house opened in Pitt Meadows, life was just a little more difficult. Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows Tourism Guide.
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