125 years and still going strong
Victoria’s South Park Family School is the city’s oldest educational facility By Glenn Miller South Park School began its life in 1894 in a newly developed southern section of Victoria, B.C. called James Bay. It sits in its entirety on a small piece of property at the corner of Douglas Street and Michigan Street. The playfield for the students is across Michigan Street with the field itself having a unique outdoor landscape that the students really enjoying playing on and around. The school on the east side faces one of Victoria’s most popular and delightful public spaces, Beacon Hill Park, which is a large park that is home to a very interesting and diverse animal petting farm. It is also located within a 10-minute walk to British Columbia’s Legislature Building and a pleasant 10-minute walk to Mile 0, the start of our great TransCanada Highway that finishes 4,860 miles east to St. John’s, Newfoundland. In 1978, South Park School was designated a municipal heritage site by the City of Victoria, and in 1979, it was renamed South Park Family School, as it operates today. The Family School philosophy was established as a “school where children, parents, and teachers will relate, learn, and grow together”. It is now the oldest
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school that has been in continuous use as an educational institution in Western Canada and it is a prominent landmark in British Columbia’s capital city. The architect, W. Ridgway Wilson designed the building in the Queen Anne style which was commonly used in building many of the schools in England at the time. The heating system consisted of four large wood- and coal-burning Dutch-style furnaces that was located in the centre of a spacious boiler room and basement area. The concept was simple; burn wood and coal and use a large natural draft flue to provide adequate heat to a large building. This basement area was also the storage space for the huge amount of wood and coal. The entire school includes a ground floor and two floors above. At any given time, there was six or seven chords of wood neatly stacked, split, and dried ready to burn. It is remarkable that this heating method continued to be used right up until 1986 when the heating system and exterior of the school was renovated. The heating system was replaced with an electric radiant panel heating system, which eventually was made to
