Edith Cavell: A new school for Western Hill
The early 20th century was a period of rapid growth for St. Catharines. Its population doubled between 1901 and 1921. This presented challenges for its public services.
The city’s schools had mostly been built between 1853 and the late 1870s. The structures were starting to show their age, and were becoming ever more overcrowded. The school board worked hard to cope, opening one new school after another: Alexandra in 1909, Victoria in 1912, Connaught in 1915. More were needed, but they would have to wait until the end of the war.
Following the Armistice in November 1918 the problem of overcrowded schools could finally be addressed. In 1919 steps were taken to build two new schools, one on Welland Avenue downtown, the other on Monck Street in west St. Catharines.
The school in Western Hill was intended to replace the St. Thomas’ Ward School, a onestorey, two-room, wood-frame building on Dexter Street, just north of Hainer (shown in our old photo this week). Built in 1877, by 1919 it was not only overcrowded but downright unfit for further use. (In an early 1920 study of local schools the city’s medical officer remarked that the St. Thomas Ward School “should not be used one day longer than is absolutely necessary …”)
So, early in 1919 money was appropriated for the two new schools, plans were drawn up, and in late summer construction began. Interestingly, the two new schools were built using the same set of plans, prepared by architect A.E. Nicholson, who by then had a considerable list of local and area schools to his credit.
With the building underway, what would the new schools be named? In late September 1919, the school board announced a contest for local students to suggest names for them. On Oct. 10 the board accepted student Willie Beattie’s suggestion that the new Western Hill school be named Edith Cavell School.
The name of Edith Cavell was much in the news at the time. She was a British nurse who had been charged with treason and executed by the Germans in 1915. In May 1919 her remains were finally returned to England and buried with honours. Naming the new Western Hill school for her was a popular decision. (The new school on
Welland Avenue would be named Memorial School, honouring former students who had died in the war.)
Next year will mark the centenary of the two schools, which both opened on Sept. 7, 1920. Initially the new Edith Cavell School actually did not have enough pupils to fill all its classrooms, but that soon changed. A series of temporary classroom buildings had to be built on the school grounds starting in 1936, and a large extension was added to the rear of the building in 1950. Edith Cavell School is still open today (unlike its twin, Memorial School, which closed in 2015 and is to be incorporated into a new apartment building on its Welland Avenue site).