Historic Sites of Manitoba: Industrial Training School / Manitoba Home for Boys / Agassiz Youth Centre (Crescent Road East, Portage la Prairie)

Link to:
Superintendents | Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

Between 1908 and 1909, a four-storey stone and brick building, designed by provincial architect Samuel Hooper, was constructed by the Snyder Brothers on the edge of the Portage la Prairie, beside Crescent Lake, as a home for the Industrial Training School. Modeled on the Minnesota Training School at Red Wing, Minnesota, the facility opened its doors in February 1910 with the transfer to its custody of 20 boys from the Central District Gaol. It was intended as a facility to deal with “juvenile delinquents” and others by giving them work-related training, with instruction in tailoring, shoe-making, gardening, carpentry, blacksmithing, baking, cooking, farming, and sewing. Later, other buildings were added nearby, some of which still remain at the site. In 1931, it was renamed the Manitoba Home for Boys.

During the Second World War, the site was taken over by the Canadian military, forcing the staff and boys to move to temporary quarters at Carman and the No. 3 Forestry Camp at the Whiteshell Forest Reserve. They returned to Portage la Prairie after the war.

A school was also operated at the site to provide elementary and high school education to those incarcerated, known most commonly as Manitoba Home for Boys School, it was properly named Lakeview Institute (also known as Lakeview School) and operated as a Special School [sometimes listed as within School Division 99].

Known as the Agassiz Youth Centre since 1977, the 59-acre site was operated by the Manitoba government as a youth correctional centre for young offenders.

It was demolished in December 2022.

Superintendents

Period	Principal
1909-1912	Wellington Bridgman (1853-1922)
1912-1915	John Weir (1867-1959)
1915-1923	Findlay William McKinnon (1879-1957)
1923-1925	Hugh Duncan Cumming (1879-1942)
1925-1926	Edgar Wood
1926-1948	Harry Atkinson (1882-1968)
1948-1967	Bruce D. Jones
1967-?	Raymond G. Atkinson
?-c1975	Terrance Rempel

Principals (Manitoba Home for Boys School / Lakeview Institute)

Period	Principal
1949-1954	Maurice Andre Joseph Harvey (1927-1992)
1954-1955	Harvey Edgar Hedley (1924-2014)
1955-1959	Jacob C. “Jake” Klassen
1959-1960	?
1960-1968	Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (1914-1984)
1968-1969	Clinton Joseph Cramer (Acting)

Teachers (Manitoba Home for Boys School / Lakeview Institute)

Period	Teachers
1944-1945	[at Carman]: Lionel Lachlan Clench (grades 2-8)
1945-1946	[at Carman]: Ernest S. Berg (grades 1-9, ?-June), Albert W. Derksen (grades 1-9, January-?), ? (September-December)
1946-1947	?
1947-1948	?
1948-1949	?
1949-1950	Maurice Andre Harvey (senior grades), ? (other grades)
1950-1951	Lorne Avery Chapple (grades 4-6), Lois Elizabeth Harvey (grades 7-8), Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 9-10)
1951-1952	Lorne Avery Chapple (grades 4-6), Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 3-10, September-December; grades 9-10, January-June), George Gilbert Perry (grades 9-10, September-December), John Leo Ryan (grades 7-8)
1952-1953	Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 10-11; September-December; grades 9-11, January-June), Alexander Samuel Kostiuk (grades 7-8, September-December), Donald McDonald (grades 7-9, September-December), Peter Raymond Porter-Smith (grades 7-8, January-June), Wilfred Tarlton Shaw (grades 7-8, January-June), Melvin Zurkowski (grades 1-6)
1953-1954	Lois Elizabeth Harvey (grades 5-6), Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 9-11), Alma Irene Penman (grades 7-8)
1954-1955	Harvey Edgar Hedley (grades 9-10), Lois Elizabeth Harvey (grades 5-6), Maurice Andre Harvey (grades 1-4, January-June), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 1-4, January-June), Alma Irene Penman (grades 7-8)
1955-1956	Jacob C. “Jake” Klassen (grades 9-10), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 3-4, September-December & January-?), Alma Irene Penman (grades 8-9), Mary Simpson (grades 3-4, ?-June), Mabel Jane Walker (grades 6-7)
1956-1957	?
1957-1958	Jacob C. “Jake” Klassen (grades 9-10), Wilhelm Kutcher (grades 5-8), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 2-5), Alma Irene Penman (grades 7-8), Mabel Jane Walker (grades 4-5)
1958-1959	George I. Black (grades 4-6), Elsie Klassen (grade 6), Jacob C. “Jake” Klassen (grades 9-10), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 2-5), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Mabel Jane Walker (grade 7)
1959-1960	?
1960-1961	Garry Howard Keast (grade 9), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 6-8), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 2-5), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grade 10), Mabel Jane Walker (grades 7-8)
1961-1962	Jessie Viola Gates (grades 1-4, January-June), Garry Howard Keast (grade 9), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 5-6), Ruby Elsie Aurelia McRae (grades 2-4), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grades 10-11), Mabel Jane Walker (grade 7)
1962-1963	Jessie Viola Gates (grades 2-5), Garry Howard Keast (grade 9), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 6-7), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grades 10-11), Mabel Jane Walker (grade 7)
1963-1964	Garry Howard Keast (grades 9-10), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grade 6), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grades 4-5, pt September - December; grades 3-5, January-June), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grade 11), Mrs. Ross (grades 4-5 substitute, pt September), Mrs. Simpson (grades 4-5 substitute, pt September), Mabel Jane Walker (grade 7)
1964-1965	Ella Myrtle Cook (grade 7), Garry Howard Keast (grades 9-10), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grades 2-4), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 5-6), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), Bertrand Rudolph “Bert” Penman (grade 11)
1965-1966	Ella Myrtle Cook (grade 7), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 5-6), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grades 2-4), Alma Irene Penman (grade 8), David Peter Shyiak (grades 9-11)
1966-1967	Elisson Winfield Braemar (grades 9-11), Roberta Gwendolyne Chepil (grades 7-8), Ella Myrtle Cook (grades 3-6), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grade 8), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grades 7-8), Alma Irene Penman (upgrading)
1967-1968	Roberta Gwendolyne Chepil (grade 8, September-December; grade 7, January-June), Ella Myrtle Cook (ungraded), Clinton Joseph Cramer (Industrial Arts & Driver Training), John Allan Howardson (grade 10, September-December), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grade 8), Gladys Doreen McMillan (grade 7), Alma Irene Penman (grade 9)
1968-1969	Roberta Gwendolyne Chepil (grades 8-10, Occupational Entrance), Clinton Joseph Cramer (ungraded, Industrial Arts), John Roderick MacLean (grades 3-9, Industrial Arts), Joyce Lucelle McKay (grades 8-12, September-December; grades 8-10, January-June), Gladys Doreen McMillan (ungraded)

Photos & Coordinates

Postcard view of the Industrial Training School (circa 1911) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2013-0116 View of the Industrial Training School (circa 1915) by James W. Jarrett Source: Archives of Manitoba, Portage la Prairie - Provincial - Industrial School for Boys 5, N14227 View of the Industrial Training School (no date) Source: Archives of Manitoba, Portage la Prairie - Provincial - Industrial School for Boys 3, N14987 One of the remaining, older buildings at the Agassiz Youth Centre having new cedar roofing installed (May 2013) Source: Gordon Goldsborough One of the remaining, older buildings at the Agassiz Youth Centre (July 2019) Source: Rose Kuzina Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.96540, W98.28236 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitoba Home for Girls (290 Drury Avenue, West St. Paul)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Flag Rock (Whiteshell Provincial Park)

Sources:

The Early Years of the Manitoba Home for Boys (Portage la Prairie), 1889-1948 by Cameron Harvey. Winnipeg: The Author, 2010. [Manitoba Legislative Library, HV 9110 .P6M3 Har]

School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.

“Manitoba Home Boys to be housed in forestry camp,” Winnipeg Free Press, 14 September 1940, page 22.

“Trophy, prizes awarded boys at Portage School,” Winnipeg Free Press, 16 June 1949, page 25.

“Film men elect Dr. M. G. Elliott,” Winnipeg Tribune, 31 October 1949, page 5.

“Edith Roders chapter visits Portage boys,” Winnipeg Free Press 19 May 1952, page 15.

“For troubled boys: Home ‘like a military school’,” Winnipeg Free Press, 30 March 1964, page 3.

Portage la Prairie, 1870-1970 by Anne M. Collier, Portage la Prairie, 1970, page 250.

Obituary [Wilfred Tarlton Shaw], Winnipeg Free Press, 14 December 2003, page A10.

We thank Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.

Page revised: 4 June 2023

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