The second in a series written for the newsletter of the Upper Ottawa Valley Genealogical Group. Published in a slightly shorter form, July, 2016.

The Hesitant Beginning of the Pembroke Collegiate Institute.

It all began with an innocuous little item in the April 6th, 1922 edition of the  Pembroke Observer,  “School Problems Were Discussed, Committee to Locate High School Site.” A committee was indeed formed to “go into the matter of locating a site for a New High School.”  With this seemingly simple task began three years of debate, fighting, government intervention and more newspaper ink than had ever been used on one story in the history of the paper.

The old high school on Isabella Street was overcrowded and the new head of the fire department, Chief Blackler had inspected the building and essentially called it a fire trap that was not suitable as a school without major repairs. Something had to be done.

It all seemed so easy. By the first of June two sites had been selected, one at the corner of Peter and Herbert Streets on a piece of land that was owned by the Public School board and was about to be used by them for the proposed new East Ward School. However they were willing to sell off three acres at a reasonable cost to be used to build the high school.

The other was at the end of Moffat Street on the parcel of land known as Moffat’s Point. Neither was deemed acceptable.

For a year things sat at an impasse. Meetings were held but nothing of note reached the press until the first day of school in the fall of 1923 when there were more students than there were places to put them. A temporary and  wholly unsuitable arrangement was made to have some students attend classes at the town hall but a  week after this began Trustee, Mrs. Gus. Schroeder, visited the temporary school and declared it a “tragedy” that was fair to neither the pupils, their parents or the teachers. Classes were separated by thin cotton curtains strung on wires, there were no suitable washroom facilities available and the noise of multiple lessons being taught at the same time was not conducive to learning.

An option had been taken out on the O’Kelly Park site for $20,000 but when this price was accepted the nitpicking began and at the next council meeting the O’Kelly site was rejected and so as the season turned to winter the situation remained as it had been in the spring of a year and a half ago.

While all the debating and the bickering was going on over the high school the East Ward Public School had been proposed, designed and built and was, as 1924 began, about to be opened to the students who had been in the old school on the corner of William and Alfred Streets. This old school that had been in too poor a condition to fix was now going to be partially taken over by the students of the high school as their new temporary classrooms.

By March the town had been visited by a high school inspector who had handed into the board a report that “is said to be a very black one.”  An ultimatum was given, if a new high school building wasn’t soon begun there would be a withholding of all high school grants. Then the principal quit. Mr. U.J. Flach, feeling he did not have the confidence of his staff as teachers were threatening to resign due to the stress of overcrowding, handed in his resignation and it was accepted by the board. The Premier of Ontario, had by this time, heard of the Pembroke situation and at the request of the local Board of Education he sent a representative here to meet with the board.

Six sites were reviewed, and although it was deemed to be too far in the east end the board eventually asked the town for $4,500 to purchase the W.R. White property on the southeast corner of Cecilia and Esther Streets. This, along with the O’Kelly site were the only two deemed suitable by the government but now the council vetoed the request with the excuse that the cost of leveling the site and installing water and sewer lines would be too costly. Now a new location was put forward, the Miller-Munro site and although this never seemed to get serious consideration it was, from time to time brought up as an alternative site to whatever was being proposed at the moment.

September opened with two hundred and forty boys and girls registering in the high school. A week after the opening bell was rung the board was once again debating the merits of different sites.  One sticking point was the policy of the provincial government that a high school needed at least three acres of land to be situated on. Every suitable site in town that had been suggested was less than this minimum and so a delegation was formed to meet with the Minister of Education in Toronto to see if this rule could be bent a little, given the local circumstances. However Premiere Ferguson said there was little he could do and suggested that the town leave off the matter of a new school for a year or two or to perhaps renovate and enlarge the old school by expropriating adjacent homes.

Meanwhile the new principal, Mr. Willoughby, met with the board to discuss his school. He told of a lack of proper equipment for teaching chemistry, of overcrowded classrooms and conditions that “startled his hearers.”  of having only one working typewriter out of eleven in the commercial class and of teenage students attending the east ward annex having to sit in seats meant for junior pupils.

The year closed with no movement towards a solution of the school question and by the first meeting of the board in February of 1925 it was hoped that this would be the year of success. But instead the first meeting ended in disarray with members hurling insults and accusations. The next session again met without success at deciding on a location but did throw in two more properties to consider. One was the Hale-Scott property on Pembroke Street east but this was eventually vetoed due to the fact it would be located opposite a factory, the Superior Electric Company. The other, mentioned for the first time was the Mackie property at the other end of the main street near the corner of Christie Street. This was thought to be not an appropriate site as it was on the main street and the government wanted schools to be located away from busy thoroughfares. A vote was held to try and select a property and in the end all five properties were voted down.

Meanwhile the fire department was looking into taking over the old high school to be used as a fire hall but when this was found to be economically unfeasible the board once again began looking into expropriating the surrounding properties and fixing the old place up.

Then around the first of April, 1925, after two years of debate a property was decided upon. The Mackie property was purchased, the old school was sold to the Separate School Board, by the end of the month architect's plans were being inspected and one was selected. By the end of July all the contracts had been awarded and by mid August excavation work had begun. Then, as work was progressing, some of the trustees, while strolling past the construction site, thought it would look better if it were set back another ten feet. And so a new excavation was begun.Then as it progressed it uncovered an underground stream that ran through the property,  went under McGaughey’s corner eventually finding an outlet in the hill behind the library. This new development required building a cofferdam around part of the excavation, adding time and cost to the building of the foundation.And so a new excavation was begun adding time and cost to the building of the foundation but it was built and the school would be open it time for the new academic year in September of 1926.

The school year of 1925/26 ended and on the evening of July 2nd the students of the old high school met on the grounds to reminisce around a bonfire. Wet wood forced them into the building where they rounded up the High School Orchestra and held an impromptu dance. Old students and teachers from years gone by dropped in to chat and at midnight a farewell cheer was raised to the old school, the National Anthem was sung and the old building ended its career as a public high school.

On September the seventh the new school welcomed its first students. Later in the month, on September twenty fourth the official opening was held with a host of dignitaries attending the event including the Premier of the province who was undoubtedly happy to be hearing the last of Pembroke and its high school woes.

During that year and in the years that followed the high school auditorium became the venue for plays, talks and meetings. The students began writing a weekly column in the Standard-Observer and that first spring saw the beginning of a long tradition with the printing of the first edition of the Nexus.

Now with the high school problem solved the town council could turn its attention to that other perennial problem that seemed to defy a solution. Where to relocate the town offices?