Historic Sites of Manitoba: Foxwarren Consolidated School No. 525 (Foxwarren, Municipality of Prairie View)

Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

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 Foxwarren in what is now the Municipality of Prairie View, 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 monument for the school, along with the stone block bearing the year of its construction, and the time capsule from the earlier school inside the monument. The school was replaced by a new structure in 1995 but it closed in 2002 due to low enrollment. The 1917 school building was demolished.

Principals

Period	Principal
1912-1914	Mr. W. J. McLaughlin
1914-1915	Howard Robert Haines (1891-1974)
1915-1916	Robert S. Cahoon
1916-1919	Florence M. Rawson
1919-1920	G. G. Leckie
1920-1924	James Humphrey Plewes (1873-1963)
1924-1925	Samuel T. Newton (c1873-1943)
1925-1927	George Patrick Stevens (c1888-1988)
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 Clarence Harper (1914-2005)
1946-1953	George Scott Belton (1904-1967)
1953-1956	Robert Leslie McIntosh (1925-2011)
1956-1957	A. Kristenson
1957-1960	John Pottinger Minions
1960-1961	John Milton
1961-1965	Mr. Jan Kupp
1965-1967	Mrs. E. J. Talbot
1967-1968	R. Kitchen
1968-1999	Phil J. DeCorby

Teachers

Among the early teachers at Foxwarren School was Sybil Francis Shack (1932-1934).

School Year	Teachers
1961-1962	Mr. Owen Clements, Mrs. Elizabeth Talbot

Photos & Coordinates

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. The former Foxwarren School building (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 159. The former Foxwarren School building (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 157. The former Foxwarren School building (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 156. Namestone from the original Foxwarren Consolidated School, now at the Foxwarren Museum (October 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Foxwarren School commemorative monument with bell and cornerstone (October 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (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.

“Council reports,” Birtle Eyewitness, 3 October 1961, page 10.

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.

“Trustees conduct regular meeting,” Hamiota Echo, 13 September 1988, page 7.

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.

“Teacher assistants,” Shoal Lake Star, 27 July 1998, page 8.

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

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 25 January 2022

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