John Pritchard School turns 100

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/01/2015 (4069 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What is now known as John Pritchard School first opened its doors at 1490 Henderson Hwy. as Lord Kitchener School on Sept. 1, 1915.

The school was named for the British secretary of state for war, Lord Kitchener, as the First World War had begun a year earlier.

The initial cost of the structure was $75,000 and the land was purchased from Herbert Whellams. It was a huge, three-storey brick building consisting of five classrooms. The caretaker, F. Nelson, lived in room 8 on the second floor and approximately 40 students attended classes from grades 1 to 4. Miss Daisy Jackson was the teacher and principal.  

There weren’t enough students to make it worthwhile to open the next year so students were sent to Lord Wolseley School in 1916. However, Lord Wolseley School suffered damage due to frozen pipes and Lord Kitchener School was reopened.

Enrolment increased in 1925 after the Kildonans were divided into East and North and Henderson Highway was paved. Lord Kitchener held about 170 students from grades 1 to 8 at the time. The school survived many things over the years, including losing part of its roof in a tornado in 1925 and a boiler explosion in 1949. Somehow it proved to be resilient though and stood its ground.

After the war, when soldiers returned and established homes and families and the economy flourished, a three-room addition was constructed. In 1953 a four-room addition was built called “Building 2” and in 1956 three more rooms were added to that.

The Manitoba Hall addition, which included a large gymnasium and an audio/visual room, was completed in 1967, at which time the school’s name was changed to John Pritchard School.The thought was that it was built on property that once belonged to one of Kildonan’s first settlers, John Pritchard.

Pritchard, an employee of the Hudson Bay Company, started an education program in a one-room classroom n 1825, where he taught the children of other Hudson Bay Company employees living in the Kildonan area.

John Pritchard School added two science rooms in 1975, a lab, an industrial arts room, a music room and a janitor’s room and in 1985 added another wing, Jackson Hall, named after the first teacher, Miss Daisy Jackson.

There are currently 406 students attending John Pritchard School where Barbara Bowles is the principal.

A centennial celebration will be held at the school on Oct. 8, 2015.
Details will be forthcoming.

Rick Sparling is a community correspondent for North Kildonan. Email him at ricksparling@shaw.ca