Enoch Turner School
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| Established | 1848 |
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| Location | 106 Trinity Street, Toronto, Ontario Canada |
| Type | Ontario Heritage Trust historic site and museum |
| Website | Enoch Turner Schoolhouse Ontario Heritage Trust |
| Type | Part IV - Property of cultural heritage value or interest |
| Designated | 2000 |
Enoch Turner Schoolhouse is an historic site and museum owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust. The school was built in 1848, when it was known as the Ward School. The building is located at 106 Trinity Street between King St. E. and Eastern Ave in Toronto, Ontario Canada.
The original one-room school was established in 1848 by Enoch Turner (1792-1866), a wealthy brewer and philanthropist, to educate the children in the poor neighbourhood surrounding his brewery. Because many of the area's immigrant families were from County Cork in Ireland, the neighbourhood became known as Corktown – a nickname it still carries today.
Turner supplied the funds to construct the Schoolhouse and the land was donated by the adjacent Little Trinity Church. In 1849, the school opened with space for 240 pupils and Turner paid for its operation for three years. It was the first free school in Toronto.
Enoch Turner founded his free school following the Common Schools Act of 1846. After the act was passed, municipalities had the power to raise funds for public education through taxation. However, city officials were unwilling to introduce such taxes, and as a result, all schools that benefited from any kind of public support were closed for a year. This prompted Turner to establish the school, which was a critical catalyst in the development of a provincially supported free school system.
In 1850, school trustees were elected by the public to oversee educational funding. Free public education officially began at the Trinity Street School in 1851. Daily class size ranged from 80 to 90 students of varying academic levels. There were several different instructors employed by the school trustees - most notably Mrs. Jane Henderson, a Scottish immigrant who taught from 1858-59. In 1859, classes were relocated to the nearby Palace Street School at Palace Street (now Front Street East) and Cherry Street. The Trinity Street School and property were returned to Little Trinity parish, and from the 1860s to the 1960s the school served as a parish hall and Sunday school for the church. In addition, the School and hall served as a recruiting station during the Second Boer War and World War I, and a soup kitchen during the Great Depression. Due to a severe fire at Little Trinity Anglican Church in 1961, the parish could no longer afford to care for the school building, and it fell into disrepair. By the late 1960s, the building was slated for demolition.
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