Education has always been a priority in Norwood
This week we continue our celebration of the 200th anniversary of the township of Asphodel with a return to our history lessons about the village of Norwood and area.
The township and the village started to be “hewn out from the wildness” in 1820. Once established and having the basic necessities such as food and shelter taken care of, our ancestors must have realized for growth and advancement to continue they needed to help the future generations. Education became a main priority.
The first purpose-built schoolhouse in the village was a log building constructed in 1832 on Peterborough Street (Highway 7). This was actually the third schoolhouse to be built in the Township of Asphodel.
The first teacher was a J. Wilkins who taught a class of 22 students. In the following years, there was also a dedicated school room located on the upper floor of a Peterborough Street store. A girls-only school was set up in a private home and classes were also held in the old Methodist Church building (the future most-moved building in town, the focus of a previous column).
The second school building in the village was built around 1840 by a James Harper, who also served as a trustee.
At one time, there was about a dozen one-room schools located within Asphodel Township. However, as the towns of Norwood and Hastings grew over the years the schools became too small to house the growing number of pupils and with improved roads and vehicles, it made sense to create larger and more centralized facilities.
By 1967, the last public oneroom school had closed in Asphodel, followed two years later by SS4 Separate School. (SS4 is thought to be the last one-room school to close in Peterborough County.)
By the year 1854, a large twostorey brick public, high, model and grammar school had been constructed just south of the present-day Presbyterian Church on land donated by P.M. Grover. This structure also served as the first municipal building with township offices and a courtroom on the upper floor and the school on the lower floor. There was also a jail in the basement.
It served the community until 1876 when the school’s population became too large for it. The township offices had moved out in 1868 when the present-day town hall was built. Sadly, the building started to fall into disrepair and was condemned in 1882.
In that same year, the board of education traded the building and lot for a property on the corner of Alma and King streets that was owned by T.M. Grover. (son of P.M.). This parcel of land was chosen mainly because of its proximity to the fairgrounds, meaning the large open space could be used as a playground and gymnastics area.
The first building to grace this lot was constructed in 1885. It was a large two-storey brick building containing a total of six schoolrooms and was used as a combination public, high, model and grammar school. In 1892, realizing the need for separate accommodations for the different levels and the growing number of students, another building was constructed along the south side of the first structure. This large red brick twostorey building cost a total of $8,000 and served as the village high school until 1952 when the new district high school was opened on Elm Street.
In 1952, a breezeway was constructed at the rear to join the two buildings together. In this configuration it served as a part of the public school until 1961 when the new district public school was opened on Flora Street.
Shortly afterwards, the building was acquired by the Norwood Legion and remodelled to serve as its Legion Hall; the legion have called the building home since July 1962.
The old public school and property next door was purchased by the Norwood fair board, but the building was heavily vandalized in the subsequent years and had to be torn down in 1978. The fair ended up donating a portion of the land to the township to build the Norwood Medical Centre and ambulance station.
While there have been dedicated separate schools in the form of one-room school houses from early on in the history of the township it was not until September of 1972 that Norwood’s St. Paul’s Catholic Separate School was opened on Oak Street. Originally, the school operated out of a series of portables linked together. A permanent school building was erected in 1978 and in the last few years it has received a major addition and refurbishment.
In recent years, both the elementary had secondary public schools have also received major renovations, improvements and additions, ensuring that the schools are prepared to meet the educational requirements of today’s students.
As it is today, our forefathers considered education to be extremely important for the youth of the community and Norwood took great pride in providing the best educators. The Norwood Register reported in 1895 that “For many years our high, public and model schools ranked among the very best in Central Ontario.”