Readin’, writin’ and ’rithmetic in Merritton
It seems that Merritton was somewhat slow in establishing and developing its local school system.
Up until the time the Village of Merritton was incorporated in 1874, local students had to go up Hartzel Road all the way to Queenston Street to attend a public school.
The new village’s council moved quickly to construct the North Ward School, a brick, oneroom school on Smythe Street just east of Oakdale Avenue. It later rented space for another school on Phelps family land west of the canal, rented other space in a former religious mission for sailors along the second canal on Bradley Street, and built a small, two-room brick school on Glendale Avenue just east of Merritt Street, near the Lybster Mill (later Domtar Paper).
Our old photo this week shows Merritton Central School. Its construction in 1893 brought education in Merritton to a whole new level. Convinced that the town needed to improve its educational facilities in its central ward, the board of school trustees in March 1893 formulated a plan for a new school to be erected in place of the aforementioned two-room brick school. The school board convinced town council to draw up a bylaw committing $10,000 to the project.
That bylaw was presented to the voters in May 1893, the voters approved the proposal, and tenders were soon called for the design and construction the school building. The winning bidder was Newman Brothers of St. Catharines. Work soon commenced, and on New Year’s Day 1894 an open house for the public marked the completion of the school, which opened for classes the following day.
The new school (which in the end cost only $6,600) was three storeys tall, built of brick with stone highlights. The building had seven rooms — three classrooms on the first floor, three more on the second floor and one large room on the third floor available to use on days when bad weather prevented use of the schoolyard. The building was topped by a tall belfry containing a bell that was used to call students to class.
The new school’s staff consisted of principal William Jameson (salary $600 a year) and three female teachers (at salaries ranging from $275 to $350 a year).
By 1920, the new Central School apparently had already been filled to capacity by the growth of the flourishing town’s school-aged population, so another school, the Glen Merritt School, devoted to kindergarten students, had to be built on the opposite side of Glendale Avenue as an annex to the original 1893 building.
After many decades of use as a public school, the board of education closed Merritton Central School. In its last years the building provided office and rehearsal space for the Press Theatre.
The former Central School building was demolished in 1979. The vacant site was eventually occupied by United Motor Collision. Today the east end of Fix Auto St. Catharines’ building and the adjacent parking lot stand where Merritton Central School once stood.