Forgotten Schools of Weston

Photos curated by WHS archivist Martin Proctor.

The building was sold off after the construction of the King Street School in the 1890s, and became part of Longstaff's Pumpworks. This image was taken in the 1940s and was donated by Jim Coulter. It shows the former school as it looked after being 'decommissioned' as a school. Note the change in the windows to the left, and the addition of a window where the tablet had been.

Here are some students outside Weston's first public school, the Pro Bono Publico School. this image is dated circa 1890.

This photo is also dated circa 1890 outside the Pro Bono School, with Garnet Rowntree (on the right with his arms folded behind him) being the only student identified in the photo.

If you attended C.R. Marchant, no doubt you will have seen this tablet at some point. It's an artefact from Weston's first school house.

This is from whence the tablet came, and if you find that a hard pill to swallow, I should explain that this school, The Weston Common School (AKA the Pro Bono Publico, due to the motto seen on the tablet above the entrance) used to stand on Main Street North (Weston Road) near Coulter.

The Weston Common School (AKA the Pro Bono Publico, due to the motto seen on the tablet above the entrance) used to stand on Main Street North (Weston Road) near Coulter.

It's Fr. Martin Michael Johnson standing near the vestry of St. John's Church, which doubled as St. John's Separate School, both before and after the one room, and later 4 room schools were built. The door behind him is the entrance...

Some of you may be old enough to recall this building when it was the Shamrock Hotel, and possibly some of you will even recall when this used to be The Weston Hotel, but there was a time when this ediface also was used as a school....

As with the old Bourke's Hotel/ Russell House/Gray Dort Inn/Shamrock Hotel, St. Alban's School lasted only a short time in this location. As time went on the Tyrrell home was sold to a family named German.

Here is one more interior image from the William Osler Photo Collection of McGill Library.

Trinity College lasted but a short time in Weston, and was relocated a few times before ultimately moving to Port Hope, Ontario. This image from the William Osler Photo Collection of McGill Library shows the school when it operated out of the Rectory of St. Philips, next to the Chapel of Ease, on Rectory Road.

Another location that Trinity College occupied in Weston is the former home of Roland Burr at King and Rosemount. This view shows the house, circa 1981...

Another location that Trinity College occupied in Weston is the former home of Roland Burr at King and Rosemount. This view shows the house, circa 1981...

Here is one of the area's forgotten schools, Humberview Public School. It was virually run over by the 401. So far I have found very little information about this school, which appears in this photo, and on this 1955 fire insurance plan of the region. The view of the photo is looking southwest by the way.

For those of you who are wondering what the Pro Bono School looked like, this is how it looked when it was being used as Gord Johnstone's home The school was situated near Coulter Avenue, and was demolished in 1956. This image (which was photographed by Gord and donated to the WHS by Jim Coulter) would have been taken no later than September - October 1948, since the streetcar tracks have not yet been removed. The streetcars were replaced by trolleys in September 1948 and the tracks were removed soon thereafter.

At one time had been Banks Private School (sometimes listed as Banks Finishing School). See if any of you can figure out where this was located.

The Tyrrell home (renamed the St. Maria Fidelis Convent during the FCJ Nuns tenure at the site still saw some use for school picnics into the 1970s. I have some home movie clips of the kindergarten students outside the convent in the winter of 1959, which I have to find some way of uploading, but in the meantime, here's a photo that touches upon a bit of lore attached to the property. It has been said that a tunnel used to link the Tyrrell estate with the former Rev. Hughes-Jones home while the nuns owned both properties, but in fact it was an above ground corridor. The corridor can be seen in the background of this photo. As to where it used to link into the former Rev. Hughes-Jones home, take a look at the south-east corner of the house the next time you are passing and you can see the replaced bricks where the link used to exist.

This image come from the William Osler Photo Collection at McGill Library. They provide us with a rare look inside Trinity College School which began in Weston, through the efforts of Fr. William A. Johnson, pastor of St. Philips's Anglican Church, and founder of St. John's Anglican Church (then called the Chapel of Ease).