McKay Avenue School

Edmonton Public Schools Archives and Museum is located in historic McKay Avenue School.

The building's cornerstone was laid in 1904 by the Governor General of Canada, Lord Minto. The year 1904 marked the beginning of an important new era of growth and prosperity in Alberta, and the building was designed to reflect this importance and inspire awe and grandeur. The Romanesque-style design included unique features such as the Ionic Romanesque pillared entranceways.

McKay Avenue School, 1912.The school was named to honour Dr. William Morrison MacKay, a doctor with the Hudson's Bay Company.

Photo credit: Glenbow Archives, Calgary, Canada, NC-6-555

Site of the First Two Sessions of the Alberta Legislature

McKay Avenue School served as the site of the first two sessions of the Alberta Legislature (1906 and 1907). It was in the third floor Assembly Hall that the important decision was made to make Edmonton the capital of Alberta.

Members of the first Legislative Assembly in the legislative Chamber of 1906, McKay Avenue School

Photo credit: Glenbow Archives, Calgary, Canada, NA-2883-20

New Lease on Life

McKay Avenue School was designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 1976. The venerable brick building had played an important role in the educational, social and political development of Edmonton and Alberta, but when in 1983 the enrolment fell to a low of 59 students the school was closed. At that time, in recognition of its importance in the early history of Edmonton and of Alberta, a history-conscious school board made a momentous decision: McKay Avenue School would be preserved to reflect the school district's past and to pass its history on to future generations.

Lieutenant Governor G. H. V. Bulyea and members of the first Legislative Assembly on the front steps of McKay Avenue School, 1906

Photo credit: Provincial Archives of Alberta, Edmonton, B 6743

Edmonton's Oldest Schoolhouse

Edmonton's oldest schoolhouse, a wooden frame building, is situated on the same grounds. Now known as the 1881 Schoolhouse, it was the first free public school in Alberta. While in use, until 1904, it sometimes served as a courthouse and meeting hall. Also a Provincial Historic Resource, the little school was restored as an Edmonton Public Schools' centennial project in 1982 and moved up from its river valley home of many years to within a few hundred meters of its original location.

Teacher W. Carson and class in front of the Edmonton (1881) School, 1886

Photo credit: Provincial Archives of Alberta, Edmonton, B 3894

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