Kemptville Public School, 1873-1936

school was $3,000, spread across the taxpaying population, as it was local residents who made up the Board. Non-residents of Kemptville were charged 40¢ per month to attend the school, but this was raised to $1 a month after 1914.

by David Shanahan

The B&H Grocery store in Kemptville stands today on what was once the site of this really lovely school. The Kemptville Public School served the children of Kemptville for sixty years, before being destroyed in a suspicious fire in March, 1936. Before it was built, there were two School Boards in the Village of Kemptville: one for the Grammar School which was in the building still standing at 205 Clothier Street west; and a Board for the two Common Schools, also still standing. One was at 402 Oxford Street, on the north side of the village, and the other was at 12 Elizabeth Street on the south side. But, in 1873, the Boards merged and a new combination Public and High School was built on the site between Rideau and West (now Sanders) Street.

The two-storey brick building had four classrooms, and employed three teachers for the Public School, and one for the High School. Supply teachers were paid the generous sum of $1.50 per day in the Public School.

The school was very successful and drew students from around the area, so that, by the mid-1880's, this building was too small to cope with the enrollment.

In 1888, a new High School was built on Prescott Street, and the older building was used exclusively for Public School classes from that year on. By the time of the First World War, the levy on local taxpayers for the

The members of the Public School Board represent some of the families with the longest history in Kemptville. Names like Sanders, Kilfoyle, Ferguson and Eager were noted, and many of the leading business people in the village put time and energy into their roles supervising the school and its activities.

In March, 1936, the school burned down. This was just three months after an equally suspicious fire had destroyed the High School on Prescott Street, and there seemed little doubt in the minds of residents at the time that both fires were the result of arson, possibly by students. The Kemptville Fire Department turned out to try and save the building, but without success. It was estimated that the loss of the building cost around $35,000, but insurance on it and its contents was just $20,000, a serious loss to the Board. But, by the end of the year, a new school had been erected on the site of the old High School, repeating the original function of the Public School in catering to both Public and High School classes.

The old Public School was replaced by a garage, and, in 1963, by the new B&H Foodliner Store. As a side note: the area that is now the parking lot for the B&H, as well as that covered by the old Giant Tiger building, was once occupied by a few homes and stores, also long gone.

The school was located in the centre of the lot, as shown in this 1917 map

Home Hardware store, Prescott Street

the 1860's, and came into the possession of the Blackburn family in 1869, when it was bought by Thomas Blackburn, who owned a large store on Prescott Street facing Asa Street. But the Blackburn family wanted a fine house to display their success, and the house at Prescott and South Rideau did just that.

It remained in the family until 1914, when Isabella Blackburn, described as an unmarried spinster, sold it to Nathaniel Kennedy.

This is an older building in Kemptville that may be hard to recognise, but it stands today in a part of town that was once the residential centre for the social and business elite. The illustration is from the Canadian Illustrated News of 1878 and shows the home of Thomas Blackburn on the corner of Prescott Street and South Rideau Street, with its gardens and surrounding fence. Today, it is the Home Hardware store and South Rideau has become Elizabeth Street.

The house dates from

Thomas Robinson lived here between 1926 and 1949, running an insurance business from his home. Then, in 1950, the building was bought by James Kennedy, who had come to Kemptville in 1946 and ran a hardware store out of the Finnerty Block (now the Clothier Inn). He moved the business to the Blackburn house in 1950, and it has been operating there under other owners ever since. It was bought from Kennedy by the current owner’s family, the Hamilton’s, in 1966.