Lisgar Collegiate Institute - Vox Lycei Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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30 VOX LYCEI The Ula' Grammar School llytown. in 1943! was honoured by the Provincial Government as a centre for the new lIrammar School of the Dalhousie District, under the authority of the new Education Act of 1939. The founding' of District Grammar Schools showed the progress of the province in population, since it was the policy of the Government to subdivide large Districts into two or more smaller ones with new centres in each of which was established this kind of school. Some kind of advanced school in each District centre was deemed indispensable as soon as the District was organized. ln llytown, Trustees were selected and a school Board organized at once to do the ground work and hew out the way for the new advanced Grammar School, which the Government desired to found. A principal was appointed and arrived in May 1843 to open the School. His name was Thomas XYardrope. one of the First graduates of Queens Cniversity which had been founded at Kingston in 18-ll. Xlardrope was a young man with a charming personality and a gracious manner as described sixty years later by Dr. George Kennedy. one of his old students. After a brief experience of great success he resigned the mastership to become Minister of the newly formed Free Presbyterian Church. XYhen the then Mr. Xkiardrope arrived at Bytown there was no school ready for him. XYhat could he do but confer with the Trustee lloard, which was al- ready organized. lt consisted of the Rev. Dr. Strong, whose son became Rt. Hon. Mr. -lustice Strong' of the Supreme Court of Canada,-lglishop Phelan, Rev. l. Cruikshanks, Mr. joseph Coombs, and Mr. G. B. Lyon-Fellowes4iive very competent representatives. ln a few days, a frame house on XYaller Street, near to Daly Avenue, was rented and fitted up for the purpose. Rev. Dr. Strong' was the first Chairman of the lioard, and had the honour of inauj.1'urating' Gram- mar School education in this city. lt had not come too soon, for many people were looking' for it, and from the tirst day one modest school-room was comfort- ably filled. There were two teachers who divided the work between them. Such was the beginning in 1943. The students were all boys, English and French speaking, Protestant and Catholic. They got along agreeably from thefirst and the school was a cause of great enthusiasm amongst the parents. Splendid pro- gress marked its work from the First day. The girls had to abide their timel The Grammar School became a splendid asset to the little llytown. the baby capital of the new Dalhousie District. It was a great inducement to settlement in and near Bytown which, in turn, rapidly forged ahead. It was a light in a new centre and evidence that the finer ideas of learning, of the cultivation of the minds and souls of the youth were of first importance. The Crest of the School is an inspiring' one .-Xlere Flammamf' Those pioneers were progressive people. lt was well that in the growth of Ottawa's material wealth and population, learning had from the outset an honoured place-for culture, and all therein implied, in a new city, in a new land, is absolutely essential in order that the highest type of manhood and womanhood be possible. lt means good citizen- ship, good home-life, good legislation and a happier and more contented and progressive people. liytown became itself an entity. self-sustaining and self- supplying its peoples needs, mentally as well as physically. The second Chairman was Dr. Hamnet Hill, who with many others in later years, notably J. P. Featherston, George Hay, Hon. Senator Cleniow, James

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VOX LYCEI 31 Cunningham, Dr. john Thorburn. G. B. Greene, H. Robillard. Thomas Birkett, and John I MacCracken, rendered good service in High School education. It is true that in the great summing up of things it is the teacher who makes the school and gives personality to it. It is true of the Public and Separate Schools as well as of the High Schools of Ottawa. She has had teachers of high ideals, scholarship, noble and line exemplary moral character on her staffs, from the first, and I think it is true that no School Board would sanction or encourage any other class of Teacher. The Ottawa Collegiate Insti- tute has noble traditions and ideals. and an enviable record in scholarship and learning, unsurpassed by any other school of its class in Canada. Its students spread its fame long ago in our leading Universities. This is in one sense a splendid heritage, lint it is one which imposes a heavy responsibility on the present statis and the students of this city. It is a high standard to maintain, to advance and to hand to posterity,-this line tradition, this educational pres- tigel From 1843 to 1374 the Board of Trustees carried on the Gramar School in rented Buildings. as if a Grammar School were only a temporary necessity! They then secured a very, very small site at the corner of Lisgar and Canal Streets ,contiguous to Cartier Square at a cost of about 33000. In 1874 the city limits were Lisgar Street,-then called Biddy Sreet. Upon this small site, seemingly considered a long distance then from Xlellington Street, was erected :1 substantial stone School, providing good basement accommodation for both boys and girls separately, and in addition three other Hoors for the school classes. It contained an Olhce, a Library Room and three Class Rooms on the ground tioorg four Class Rooms and a Laboratory on the Frst Floor with a rough, spacious, unfinished Assembly Hall on the top floor. Xlfithout any annex this building was satisfactory for the next eighteen years, when four additional class rooms were added on the South,-Lisgar Street side-making a new front to the Building. To these four rooms, were added later three new rooms on the top floor of the new wing, which had not been completed before on this storey. Still later in 1902 the East XYing was added near to the New Driveway. The huge west XYing was added some years later and contains the fine Assembly Hall still in use. As each of these wings was added the rooms in the old original building were remodelled somewhat to adapt them to tit in with the newg but the old 1874 Building, with its Oriel XYindow and the North XYalls. still re- mains intact and renders as good service as it did when it was alone. It is this Building with its three additional wings which forms the Lisgar Street School of 1950, and it stands in all its ancient glory as the Mother Schoolu of to-day, from which have grown up The Glebe School. The Tech- nical School' and now the new High School of Commerce. The old Mother School has a great hold on the older families of Ottawa. On its historic Roll of Honour are inscribed names of many of the sons and daughters of earlier generations back to the year 1861. older even by thirteen years than this Mother School itself. Its position is being maintained well by the able body of Teachers whose labours in its service, whose varied and unchallenged scholarship and skill, and whose organization to meet the demands of modern civilization, stand high in the judgment of the Education Department. It would be impossible to maintain its standing were- it not backed. up by many of our ablest citizens, who, as Trustees, take pride' in the Institution. It Calls for leadership and vision to lead progressive institutions of learning wisely