Brant-Argyle School
| Brant-Argyle School | |
|---|---|
Built in 1914
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| Location | |
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Argyle, Manitoba Canada |
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| Information | |
| Type | Educational facility |
| Established | 1914 |
| Opened | 1914 |
| School district | Centre |
The Brant-Argyle School (formerly Brant Consolidated School #1703) is an educational facility located in the village of Argyle, Manitoba, Canada. It was built in 1914 to consolidate the one room schools in the Brant (1914), McLeod School (1914), Bruce (1914), Argyle (1963), Grassmere, Meridian (1959) and Centre School Districts.
When the small one-room schools in Manitoba were reaching a point of growth in the early 1900s, there became a Consolidated School Movement to group them together. Larger schools mean that more courses could be offered, and money was saved by combining the efforts of the many schools scattered across the province.
In 1913, the trustees of the Brant and McLeod School Districts began to meet regarding the possible consolidation of their two schools. It was decided that they would build a new structure at the newly established village of Argyle Station, as it was halfway between the two existing schools. A committee was drawn up to decide costs and to place tenders in the local newspapers for construction of a brick veneer, two storey building. This new structure would have two large classrooms, cloak rooms, a staircase, Trustee's room, principals office, and basement furnace room.
The school property also was home to a horse barn with storage for the winter and summer school vans, an outdoor bathroom (with one side for girls, the other for boys) and a water pump house. The entire school yard was fenced with two entrance gates allowing for a "U-Shaped" dive way for the horse drawn vans. A flag pole was installed directly in front of the school.
The school was originally built with just two classrooms, with a tower (containing the staircase, trustees room and principals office). At the time of construction the school appeared asymmetrical, with the tower off to the east side of the classroom component of the school. This was done on purpose, so that a future addition would need only classroom facilities, the tower would become centralized to serve both halves of the school.
The high ceilings and numerous windows (4 on west side of classroom, 3 on south side of cloakroom) allow for lots of natural light. The ceilings are decorative tin, floors are oak and interior walls are lath and plaster. The tower contains an oak staircase, with hand turned balusters. It is suspected that the brick came from the Balmoral Brick Company, located in nearby Balmoral, Manitoba.
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