Luxton School more than a century old

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/09/2015 (3906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For many schools September means another year of ushering in new students, but for one venerable old institution it is an impressive time-honoured, long established routine.

Luxton School, located east of Main Street on a gentle slope on Polson Avenue, was built in 1907 and has been welcoming young students through its grand old doors for over a century.

It is a striking school, stately and immense and built in the years before the First World War, when large, architecturally beautiful schools were common.

It is possibly, apart from Isbister School, one of the oldest surviving public schools in the city. Designed by J.B. Mitchell and constructed of Tyndall stone and pale pressed brick, the school boasted enormously wide halls and was expected to be “the finest school in the city.”

According to the Winnipeg Free Press the school was built on a portion of “the old Polson estate.” For many years the home and farm of Hugh Polson (the son of an original Selkirk Settler) was on the site. Along with a windmill he had built to grind his grain.

The cornerstone was laid on Sept. 28, 1907 with copies of the city daily papers placed inside. When the school opened in 1908 there were 230 children enrolled and six teachers who taught Grades 1 to 6. Luxton was described as the largest school in Winnipeg at that time.

Luxton was named for W.F. Luxton ,who was said to have been the first teacher in the first public school in Winnipeg (established in 1871). He went on to found the Manitoba Free Press (now the Winnipeg Free Press), along with John A. Kenny, a year later. He was a member of the provincial board of education and also a founder of the Winnipeg General Hospital.

Luxton died at the age of 63, the same year that construction began on the school that honours him. The school’s website reports that a large portrait of Luxton has hung in the main hall since the school opened.

Huge increases in population led to further additions to the school in 1915 and 1948. A new gymnasium and an enclosed atrium were added in 1988.

Because the school is situated on fairly high ground, the site was used during the 1950s flood as headquarters for the police, navy and other organizations.

Luxton is a treasure from another era — a building that has survived two world wars, the Spanish Flu, the depression, the 1950 flood and which continues to welcome hundreds of young students through its doors.

Cheryl Girard is a community correspondent for West Kildonan. You can contact her at girard.cheryl@gmail.com