Historic Sites of Manitoba: Foxwarren Consolidated School No. 525 (Foxwarren, RM of Birtle)

The Foxwarren Consolidated School arose in May 1916 from the consolidation of five school districts: Bayfield School No. 525, Dunstan School No. 379, Crewe School No. 546, Foxwarren School No. 1274, and Moresby School No. 910. In 1917, a two-storey brick school was erected in the village of Foxwarren in the Rural Municipality of Birtle, on a design by Winnipeg architect Henry William Greene. A bell tower was raised on the school in 1926, using the proceeds of concerts organized by principal George Stevens. Student enrollment in the school varied through time, from 54 to 250, with instruction up to grade 12 from 1927 to 1965, and up to grade 8 after 1965. The bell was later removed when the roof was deemed unable to support it, and it is now displayed as part of a commemorative cairn for the school, along with the stone block bearing the year of its construction, and the time capsule from the earlier school inside the cairn. The school was replaced by a new structure in 1995 but it closed in 2002 due to low enrollment. The original building is no longer present at the site.

Principals of Foxwarren School

Period	Principal
1913-1914	W. J. McLaughlin
1914-1915	Howard H. Haines
1915-1916	Robet S. Cahoon
1916-1919	Florence M. Rawson
1919-1920	G. G. Leckie
1920-1924	James Humphrey Plewes (1873-1963)
1924-1925	S. T. Newton
1925-1927	George Stevens
1927-1931	Charles T. Cresswell (1872-1961)
1931-1934	Leslie George Robinson (1903-1994)
1934-1938	C. C. Warkentin
1938-1943	Arni Kristinson (1883-1969)
1943-1946	Hilton C. Harper
1946-1953	George Scott Belton (1904-1967)
1953-1956	R. L. McIntosh
1956-1957	A. Kristenson
1957-1960	John Pottinger Minions
1960-1961	John Milton
1961-1965	Jan Kupp
1965-1967	Mrs. E. J. Talbot

Foxwarren Consolidated School (no date) by J. B. Morrison Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 82. Foxwarren Consolidated School (June 1933) by J. B. Morrison Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 82. Namestone from the original Foxwarren School, now at the Foxwarren Museum (October 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Foxwarren School monument with bell and cornerstone (October 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Location (lat/long): N50.51578, W101.15322 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.

A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.

“New Foxwarren School opened”, Shoal Lake Crossroads, 21 February 1995, page 1.

“Rural schools facing empty classrooms”, Winnipeg Free Press, 1 May 2003, page 21.

Information for this page was collected and prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 14 May 2013

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