Key Number:	HS 29988
Site Name:	Grande Prairie High School
Other Names:	Central Park High School Central Park School
Site Type:	0310 - Educational: Museum or Gallery 0314 - Educational: School

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			71	6	6

Address:	10209 - 99 Street
Number:	9
Street:	99
Avenue:	102
Other:
Town:	Grande Prairie
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:	Gothic Revival
Plan Shape:	Rectangular Long Facade
Storeys:	Storeys: 1 1/2
Foundation:
Superstructure:	Nailed Frame
Superstructure Cover:
Roof Structure:	Flat
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:	Massing of Units: Single Detached Wings: Unknown Wall Design and Detail: Stepped Parapet Plain Eaves Roof Trim Material - Eaves: Unknown Roof Trim - Verges: Not Applicable Roof Trim Material - Verges: Unknown Towers, Steeples and Domes: None Dormer Type: None Chimney Location - Side to Side: Unknown Roof Trim - Special Features: None Window - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Plain Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Material: Wood Window - Sill Type: Plain Slip Sill Window - Sill Material: Wood Window - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Plain Window - Trim Within Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Window - Number of Sashes: One Window - Opening Mechanism: Single or Double Hung Window - Special Types: None Window - Pane Arrangements: 2 over 2 Main Entrance - Location: Centre (Facade) Main Entrance - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Plain Flat Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening Material: Wood Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Number of Leaves: 2 Main Entrance - Number of Panels Per Leaf: 2 Main Entrance - Leaves - Special Feature: Dutch Door Main Stairs - Location and Design: None Main Porch - Type: Recess Main Porch - Material: Concrete Main Porch - Height: First Storey
Exterior:	Collegiate Gothic style. Double hung windows multi lights projecting frontispiece, date stone inscription stone. One and one-half storey red brick stretcher bond, decorated facade, symmetrical apertures, solid horizontality, occasional vertical elements and broken skyline.
Interior:	N/A
Environment:	In Grande Prairie, on grounds of the present Central Park High School.
Condition:	Basically the building is structurally sound but it is in need of major interior and exterior renovations. (1981)
Alterations:	N/A

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Constructed	1929/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
High School Jr. High School Music and Art Facility Part Regional College	1929/01/01 1950/01/01 1969/01/01 1969/01/01
Owner:	Owner Date:
Grande Prairie School District Central Park High School	1912/01/01 1981/08/04

Architect:	N/A
Builder:	N/A
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	1912 - First Public School in Grande Prairie was built 1915 - A New School was built to replace the original 1916-1917 - Montrose School was built the first brick faced school 1967 - Montrose school was razed 1929 - Grande Prairie High School now known as Central Park High school was built. 1950-1967 - G.P. High School building was utilized as Junior High School, 1967-1969 - Utilized as part of G.P. Reginal College 1969-1981 - Presently being used as a music facility and storage area The building is the Oldest Public Building still standing in Grande Prairie. Historic Sites Board had recommended to the Minister that the building be pesignated a Historic Site (Feb. 6, 1981). * * * Central Park High School was the first purpose-built high school erected in the City of Grande Prairie. It has served an educational function in the community since 1929. During this time, the city evolved from a small northern farming community to a centre for gas and oil exploration as well as agricultural services. The school serves as a reminder of the growth in importance of secondary education in the province as well as the development of Grande Prairie as a centre of new settlement even before the wave of Depression immigration swept into the Peace River County. * * * CENTRAL PARK HIGH SCHOOL, GRANDE PRAIRIE Peace River would be Alberta's last settlement frontier. Originally the home of Indians, missionaries, and fur traders, the country around Grande Prairie saw its first homestead in 1896 when Louis Calihoo established a lonely farm that would remain without neighbours until 1905 when the first major immigration took place. The settlement pressure eventually produced a proper survey of the district by W.G. MacFarlane, D.L.S., in 1909 but innumerable settlers had already squatted on their land. Squatting was a thorny issue and had already contributed to two Metis uprisings in the Northwest. A town land office was opened in the small settlement of Grande Prairie. ... Early in January 1911, the Grande Prairie School District had been organized by Order in Council. It was the third to be organized in the South Peace River Country, having been preceded by the districts of Spirit River and Beaverlodge. The existence of three school districts before the country had been officially opened to homesteaders indicates the large number of mainly French Canadian and Metis squatters who had arrived in advance of the survey crews. The scool board held their first meeting in July 1911, and their first act was to vote a debenture for the construction of a wood frame school building 25'x 35'x 13'. The Board ran into a great deal of difficulty in their in their first year while trying to build the school, plaqued as they were by a dearth of adequate local building materials. Inadequate transportation also meant that items ordered from Edmonton took a long time to get to Grande Prairie. Coupled with the heavy demands upon the local sawmill, the poor service northwest of Edmonton often meant a six month wait for sawn lumber. The building finally opened in December 1912 under the supervision of the first teacher, an Ontarian, Mr. Macklin who instructed thirteen pupils. The building was extraordinarily plain, a fact which led the editor of the Grande Prairie Herald, W.C. Pratt, to commet in the first issue of that paper that the building had 'poor inducement to offer to (sic) the average boy or girl to attend school regularly. By 1915, the school building was already in poor condition and badly overcrowded. Consequently the Board authorized the construction of a new school but decided that the structure would be used only temporarily. For this reason they gave instructions that the building be patterned after a store in order that it might be easily disposed of later on. In the meantime, Grande Prairie's population had grown significantly, aided by the arrival of the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway in 1916. By this time, the Board had already produced plans for a permanent brick school to replace their temporary structure. The new school was a two storied brick structure with four classrooms and a library. It was to be located on land donated by Reverend Forbes. Two of the rooms were intended for high school use, while the other two were identified for the elementary school. By 1922, the town had again outgrown the school and an addition was made. The addition contained science and chemistry facilities for the high school students and an assembly hall. ... It was at this point, late in the twenties that Grande Prairie decided it needed a building solely for high school to accommodate the increasing number of students enrolled in secondary education. ... Charlie Spencer, a local contractor who had built 'Montrose', was aqarded a contract to build the school for $20,120. ... Construction of the school began in the summer of 1929 and was finished before the year end. The exterior brick was brought from Edmonton while the fire brick was obtained locally from the independently operated Dalen Brickyard that served northern Alberta until 1950s. Upon its completion, Central Park High School was one of the town's most impressive buildings. A one and one-half storey, rectangular, flat-roofed brick structure, it was faced with red stretcher bond brick. Essentially horizontal in its massing, the structure possesses a front facade pierced symmetrically with large multi-paned wood framed windows. The projecting one storey front entrance porch has a stepped parapet which echoes in intent if not in shape the irregular roof line of the front facade. The parapet coping, windows sills and decorative blocks in the facade are stone. The central front bay contains a round arched window flanked by vertical piers. The end and rear faces are devoid of ornament. A central corridor runs parallel to the long front and divides the classroom spaces, allowing for maximum light and good cross ventilation, always important concerns. Central Park vaguely evokes the Collegiate Gothic style in its use of red brick, symmetrical apertures, solid horizontally, occasional vertical elements and its broken skyline. It is however a late, stripped down, rationalized, utilitarian version of this type. Essentially it is a modern brick box with a single decorated facade. The conventional academic styling of Central Park High School is a reflection of the conservatism of Alberta's educational system in the late twenties and thirties. Although there was an awareness of the need for school reform, it was not until the 1930s that the so-called 'New Curriculum', popular in Eastern Canada and the United States, was adopted. Thus, purpose-built schools erected prior to this date have little room for elaborate facilities. Like Grande Prairie, they contained simple classrooms and basic science laboratories suited to the teaching of the basic academic fundamentals and a litte science. Despite the fact that the new curriculum was embraced in the mid-thirties, because of the Depression and the Second World War it was not until the 1950s that schools in Alberta began to include industrial arts and home economics rooms. Grande Prairie High School offered the 'new curriculum' courses from the mid-1930s on, but housed them in temporary buildings across town until a new high school facility was opened in 1950. Central Park High school is now used as the 'music wing' of the adjoining, larger high school. It is one of the few early brick buildings taht remain in the City evoking the era of late pioneer settlement in the Province. * * * DRAFT RELEASE Mary J. LeMessurier, Minister of Culture announced today that the Central Park High School in Grande Prairie has been designated a Provincial Historic Resource. This building, located at 11202 - 104 Street, was constructed in 1929 to accomodate the growing need for secondary educational facilities in Grande Prairie which has emerged as the dominant urban centre in the South Peace region. Settlement of this area had begun as early as 1896, but featured few and scattered arrivals before 1916. A new impetus for immigration was provided by completion of the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway as far as the Grande Prairie townsite in 1916. The Grande Prairie School District, originally origanized in January 1911, was soon under continuing pressure to expand the school facilities. Prior to 1929 the Board built three schools, the last of which inluded two classrooms for high school purposes. The Central Park School was constructed for the exclusive use of high school students. The Central Park School was constructed for the exclusive use of high school students. It is a one and a half storey brick and stone structure featuring large multi-paned, wood framed windows and a projecing one storey front entrance porch. At the present time this building is used as the 'music wing' of the adjoining new high school facility which was opened in 1950. The significance of this building therefore derives from its association with the development of Grande Prairie and the South Peace region between 1910 and 1930.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Provincial Historic Resource	1984/05/07

Register:

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0577