Alas, the old South Slocan schoolhouse is no more.
A demolition contractor working for the Regional District of Central Kootenay arrived Dec. 8, 2023 and while the building appeared outwardly intact as of Dec. 17, four days later it was gone. It was the victim of a confluence of factors including limited use, the high cost of upkeep, a small population with a modest tax base, and the need to keep the property in community hands because it’s also home to the water system.
While it’s perhaps cold comfort now, it’s worth acknowledging the volunteers, including Peter and Ann Wood, who kept the building going nearly 35 years longer than it might have otherwise.
While the school was widely reported as having been built in 1929 (according to BC Assessment) or 1930, it was in fact both older and younger than that, depending on which part you’re talking about. It also played a minor role in the history of another still-thriving institution.
The South Slocan schoolhouse seen in May 2021. The left (west) side of the building came first.
Our story begins in June 1912 when residents of what was then called Slocan Junction petitioned the education department to establish a school there. Collingwood Gray, O.W. Humphry, and Cecil Patey were elected the first trustees.
The first classes were that fall in the new community hall with an enrollment of 17 students (six boys, 11 girls). While I presume the school went from Grade 1 to 8 like most rural schools, all I can tell from the Department of Education’s annual report is that 13 students were between the ages of six and 16 while four were some other age.
The first teacher was Nora Paterson, who held a third-class teaching certificate and received $75 a month for her efforts. She also taught for three weeks that school year at Meadow Spur, between Salmo and Fruitvale. She was reportedly a popular teacher who quickly endeared herself to her pupils and put on an excellent Christmas program.
In the summer of 1913, Miss Paterson, 22, married lumberman James Murdoch Frame in Nelson. But they faced tragedy after tragedy. Their baby daughter died in 1915. Then in 1919, Nora went to Sacred Heart hospital in Spokane to have her spleen removed. She died there, age 27. James was killed in a logging accident at Kitchener in 1921, age 36. They’re all buried together in Nelson.
James and Nora had a son as well, James Jr., born in 1916, who was raised by his grandparents, served with the Seaforth Highlanders in World War II, worked in Nelson hotels as a bartender, and served on the executives of several sports organizations. In 1962, he collapsed following a golf tournament in Spokane and died in the same hospital as his mother, age 46.
Back in South Slocan, residents met in September 1914 to choose a site for a new school, but it took until February 1917 for trustees to receive title to a portion of Lot 4813. The property was purchased from rancher Martin Anderson, also a former merchant and postmaster.
The school’s impending construction was announced in the Nelson Daily News of Aug. 17, 1917.
Thanks to a couple of files at the BC Archives, we know a lot about the construction of the original wing, which was was based on a stock government plan entitled “large one-room school” and had an estimated cost of $3,750.
The government’s supervising architect’s office noted “No similar schoolhouse has recently been erected in this district. Robson (including furnace heat) cost $4,280 in 1914. A similar school now building at Baynes Lake, Fernie dist, $3,870.” (And by golly, the Baynes Lake school is still standing and is now a community centre.)
Here is the tender notice.
Just one bid was received, from the Victoria firm of McWilliam and Munro, which had landed other government jobs. At a glance, they also built or added on to schools in Granby Bay, Colwood, South Wellington — and Silverton. George McWilliam was a councillor in Saanich in addition to being a contractor but I don’t know anything about James Munro.
McWilliam and Munro’s bid of $3,646 ($94,616 in today’s currency) was $104 below the estimated budget, so they were awarded the contract.
Hired as clerk of works was Nelson’s most prolific and prominent architect, Alex Carrie, whose job was to report weekly on the progress of the project and ensure the contractor didn’t deviate from the plans. District engineer F.L. MacPherson, who recommended Carrie, said: “He is a good practical man, thoroughly reliable and conscientious.”
Work on the school and two outhouses began on Oct. 4, 1917 with a crew of three. Munro was on site first followed by McWilliams but we don’t know who the other builders were. We don’t know where the materials came from although the Wattsburg Lumber Co. was less than one kilometre away.
The plans called for two basement “recreation rooms,” one for boys and one for girls, a main-floor classroom of 32x27 feet, a cloak room of 22x10 feet, and a fuel room of the same dimensions.
Carrie said the contractor immediately ran into trouble when the ground was cleared for they discovered “nearly the whole site of the building was solid rock, which had to be blasted out.”
Originally the plan called for the classroom windows to face west and have the entrance point toward the road. But this was reversed so the classroom faced south and had a much better view. Carrie suggested altering the staircase by putting in a landing and a lower flight of stairs to face the road. The government agreed provided there was no extra cost, but that was unlikely. A few months later trustees prevailed again to have the stairs face the road, which “would be more convenient in every way.”
The contractor quoted an additional $45. The public works engineer, having forgotten this was Carrie’s idea to begin with, asked his opinion. He said it was a good move and the government agreed to the additional cost.
Blueprint for the Slocan Junction school. BC Archives GR-0054.45.585
Work progressed slowly on account of poor weather. A few times Carrie asked the contractor to redo various aspects of the project, but on the whole he found “the quality of the workmanship and material is good and the results are very satisfactory so far.”
On April 6, 1918 he declared “The building is completed and ready for occupancy and is a good well finished building in every respect.”
However, disaster threatened to undo everything. A mudslide came 300 feet down the hill, depositing debris a few feet deep at the back of the building, around the main steps, and the outhouses. “Luckily there were some large boulders and stumps in its track, or it would have done damage to the new buildings,” Carrie wrote.
The contractor billed for slide clean-up along with additional excavation and concrete work, plus the staircase change, for a total of nearly $800 extra. The government agreed to pay all but $61, leaving a net overrun of 20 per cent on the original contract.
Assuming the intended paint scheme was carried out, the school was originally “buff” (light brownish yellow) with dark chocolate trim, a red roof, and cream sashes, which appears to have been the typical colour palette for schools at the time.
A week after Carrie signed off on the building, the public works engineer gave the school board secretary the go-ahead to take occupancy. Students probably moved in that month. But any plans for a grand opening were derailed by a visit in mid-June by the acting supervising architect to the public works engineer, who was stunned by what he discovered.
“I … found the work very badly done, the worst piece of work I have examined for some time, and I am afraid it will be worse before better,” Hy Whittaker told his boss. “I am surprised at these contractors making such a poor piece of work at this school and departing so much from the specification, also in regard to Mr. Carrie who visited the building each week and reported same as well constructed.”
Slocan Junction school in its original state, circa 1918-19. (Courtesy Gerry Stevenson)
Slocan Junction school in its original one-room state, before 1935. (Courtesy Ian Corner via Ann Wood)
Whittaker laid out a list of 40 defects, many the result of shrunken lumber. The public works engineer in turn complained to McWilliam and Munro.
“I am surprised after the amount of good work you have done for the government and the confidence reposed in you in the past that this building should now be erected in such an indifferent manner,” he wrote. “It now remains for you to do all in your power to rectify these failings in order to maintain your former good standing.”
He also demanded an explanation from Carrie “as to why you reported that the work was satisfactorily completed in the face of enclosed list of omissions.” Had Carrie been asleep at the switch? Or was Whittaker being too picky? And where were the school trustees in this?
In a multi-page reply, Carrie acknowledged the deficiencies but deflected any blame, insisting he pointed the problems out to the contractor to no avail. He said when the materials arrived, the contractor tried their best to keep them dry “but heavy falls of soft snow and rain simply filled it full of moisture before it could be worked into the building. I told the contractors there was liable to be trouble when the hot weather struck.”
Carrie said when Munro was running the work, things seemed to go well, but when McWililam arrived, there was a turn for the worse. Carrie added the crew moved on to start a job at the Nelson courthouse and left many things unfinished.
I made my weekly trip out and to my surprise found no one there. I took a good look around and came in to town and hunted them up and asked for an explanation for the way things had been left around the buildings. They said that they would go back and fix things up after they got the courthouse work done. When they finished at the courthouse McWilliams [sic] headed for Victoria and Munro went out to the school and worked a week trying to fix things up. He was very much disgusted at McWilliams [sic] for the way he had acted and practically apologized to me for his partner.
Yet there was no hint of this in Carrie’s weekly reports and when Whittaker told him he was going to inspect the work, Carrie said nothing “because I wanted to see how much truth there was in what McWilliams [sic] had always been telling me, that his way of doing things would pass.”
The public works engineer didn’t buy the explanation. He said Carrie had no authority to allow the contractor to stray from the specifications provided, “so I am at a loss to know why you allowed the items mentioned to pass in the face of the above.”
Now Carrie found himself as McWilliam and Munro’s agent to fix the problems. John Burns & Sons of Nelson sent two carpenters, a cement man, and a labourer, each for several days. Paper hanger E.C. Player lent his paint brush. Along with a few incidentals, it came to $246 which the contractor ultimately paid after a few reminders, no doubt to Carrie’s relief. The work was finished in time for the start of the school year in September 1918.
Ironically, given that many students were the children of West Kootenay Power employees, the school didn’t initially have electricity. That appears to have been rectified within a few years.
The first teacher in the new school was Gladys Clyde of Robson, 18, who was also the last teacher in the previous school. In 1920, Miss Clyde married William Nelson. Here she is around that time in a photo found at ancestry.com.
The Nelsons moved to Vancouver, then to Nelson, Fernie, Swift Current, and Calgary. They had six kids, one of whom, Audrey, married Nelson’s Henry Stevenson — which explains why their son Gerry has the photo of the school seen above, although he didn’t realize his grandmother taught there. Gladys died in 1959, age 60.
While it would be possible to make a complete list of the school’s teachers (and most of its students, for that matter), I’ve only jotted down a few: Olga Rowe took over in 1918-19 followed by Ida Parker in 1919-20.
The BC Archives has scanned a couple of forms Slocan Junction teachers filled out about their school. The one below by Mary C. Binnie dated March 6, 1922 reveals she earned $1,080 that year and stayed in a one-room shack for $5 per month. Otherwise the cost of room and board was $30 to $35 in either the Kootenay Falls hotel or private homes.
She described the condition of the school and its grounds as: “Good school – built three [sic] years ago. Cement basement, electric lights. Grounds – hilly.”
BC Archives GR-0461, Box 1, File 8
The Shawn Lamb Archives at the Nelson Museum has student registers for the school dating back to April 1917, when there were 35 pupils and lots of sets of siblings. Family names included Anderson, Georges, Gray, Lee, Melneczuk, Patey, Potosky, Shannon, and Bonner.
Two other family names stick out: three Sherstobitoff kids, Alex, Hasha, and Pauline, who would have been among the first (of many) Doukhobor students. Plus there’s a future county court judge in Leo Gansner. Leo’s younger sisters Pauline and Elsa also attended the school and Elsa returned to teach there in the mid-1930s. Another distinguished alumnus was Ron O’Genski, who attended in the early 1940s and went on to become town administrator in Castlegar among other places.
Construction of the South Slocan dam in the mid-1920s resulted in a population boom. The school went to two divisions in January 1927 but it must have been very cramped. Teacher Jim Gagnon, then in charge of the senior division, filled out a school district information form on Feb. 24, 1928 that showed 56 students enrolled.
BC Archives GR-0461, Box 2, File 10
The school inspector’s report noted Slocan Junction as one of several schools where “additions or improvements” were made in 1926-27 but didn’t get into specifics. The school waited until 1932 to get indoor plumbing.
Around that time the school also received a name change. While the community was known as Slocan Junction and South Slocan interchangeably, the latter had long supplanted the former for most purposes. Yet the school clung to the older name, possibly just because it was painted on the entrance porch.
Slocan Junction school 1928-29. Back row, from left, teacher Jim Gangon, Robert Bell, Harold Rhodes, Doug Ridge, Gordon Batley, Frank Frisby, Mike Markin. Second row, from left, Beth Norris, Edna Edwards, Edna Watts, Irene Frisby, Winnie Russell, Eliza Edwards, Margaret Bell (back), Edith Edwards (front), Dixie Edwards. Front row, from left, Gilbert Cunningham, Jack Frisby, Jack Stewart, Irvine Kingsley, Leonard Purdy, Dave MacDonald, Bill Muir, George Stewart. (From Dave MacDonald collection)
Slocan Junction school 1930-31. Teacher Muriel Harrop. Back from from left, Betty Macdonald, Ione Kingsley, Grace McWilliams, Rita Jones, Edith Edwards, Belle Cunningham, Anne Smith, Edna Edwards, Irene Frisby, Betty Bird. Second row, from left, Jess Ridge, Reid Gardener, Bill Muir, Jim Thompson, Leonard Purdy, Bill Ramsay, Irvine Kingsley. Front row, from left, Tom Hunt, Donald Watts, Ron Edwards, Julian Yeatman, Dave MacDonald, Ted Nichols, Jack Tindale. (From Dave MacDonald collection)
In 1933, the school board finally decided it was time for expansion and asked the education department to prepare plans for another classroom. However, they noted “The original plans for the present school were lost in a fire.” That was probably the fire that destroyed Braeside, the home of school district secretary John Yeatman, sometime in the mid-1920s.
New plans were drawn up but would have placed the second classroom behind the first one. Yeatman gently pointed out that it made much more sense to put the addition on the east side, so that as with the original classroom the windows would face south, the room would get more sunlight, and no excavation would be required. The entrance would remain in the same general location but the steps would be altered so you would go straight into the building rather than climbing them and turning left.
A new sketch was duly provided for the building’s twinning and the project went to tender in April 1934. Unlike the first wing 17 years earlier, there was apparently lots of interest this time from local contractors. But the BC Archives file peters out at this point, and I haven’t been able to learn who the winning bidder was, nor how much they were paid, nor when the project was complete, although it’s probably safe to say it was either 1934 or 1935.
South Slocan school students 1934 (top) and Nov. 4, 1937 (above). (From Dave MacDonald collection, courtesy Cheryl MacDonald Trevison)
South Slocan school students 1936-37. (From Dave MacDonald collection, courtesy Cheryl MacDonald Trevison)
While she only stayed a few months, Freda Hofmann (frequently misspelled Hoffman) was among the school’s most noteworthy teachers. She was born in 1920 in Eisendorf, but there is conflicting information on whether that was in Germany or Czechoslovakia. Eisendorf is a small municipality in Germany but it was also the German name given to the Czech town of Bělá nad Radbuzou.
Freda’s family came to Canada in 1927 and farmed at Bengough, Sask. From an early age, her musical aptitude was apparent. She sang on local radio programs and took piano lessons. She attended St. Ursula’s Academy north of Saskatoon for four years, where she was an outstanding student, winning the 1938 Sacred Heart scholarship, awarded to the convent student with the province’s highest Grade 13 exam marks. It entitled her to free tuition at Sacred Heart college in Regina, but it’s unclear whether she took advantage of it. The family moved to Vancouver and she graduated from normal school with a BC teaching certificate in 1941.
BC was still dotted with one-room schools and most graduates could expect to find themselves in distant outposts. This was the case for Freda, whose first assignment was at Rhone in the Boundary (coincidentally, the same school where Crescent Valley-raised Yvette Swanson, nee Bourgeois, taught in the 1920s). After one year, Freda left to become principal in South Slocan. She arrived in September 1942, age 22, joining fellow teacher Ruby Palmer.
Thanks to her skills, Freda’s students no doubt had musical instruction that similar-size schools could only dream of. However, following a rousing Christmas concert, she resigned and was given a “hearty send off at the [railway] station by the school children and friends.”
One of her students, Frank Radelja, would recall her departure much differently in his 2019 autobiography, The Man From South Slocan. He claimed she was arrested by the BC Provincial Police under suspicion of spying for Germany. Supposedly pictures she took of her students with the Kootenay River dams in the background came in for close scrutiny.
While I have no doubt Radejla thought this was true (he didn’t elaborate on how he came to believe this), it does Freda a great disservice and is probably emblematic of hostility German Canadians faced during the Second World War. It’s hard to guess if Freda would have been amused or offended that someone invented this story. Maybe a bit of both.
In fact, according to her obituary, Freda became a German translator for the Canadian military. While I have no other details, she lived in Ottawa at least through the summer of 1943. It may have been where she was posted, but her brother was also there studying medicine.
After the war, she dedicated herself to a musical career, beginning intensive study with a series of prominent teachers in Toronto to further refine her mezzo-soprano. In 1947, she won the Toronto Star scholarship, although I don’t know what it entitled her to.
Freda in The Vancouver Sun of March 13, 1947 and April 19, 1949
Two years later, she advanced to the semi-finals of the Atwater-Kent auditions for young singers in Los Angeles. The winner was to receive a $15,000 scholarship. However, I don’t know the outcome. Around the same time, she won the operatic solo category of the BC Musical Festival and an adjudicator told her: “This was very good operatic singing indeed. You have a very promising voice.”
A high point of Freda’s musical career should have been a joint recital with Hugh McLean at Theatre Under the Stars in Stanley Park in May 1949, but she had to cancel due to illness. The following year she was honored at a series of teas before setting sail for Milan to spend a year studying with a famed Italian vocal coach.
Despite her short stay in South Slocan, Freda stayed in touch with friends there. “Milan is a very dreary city,” she wrote to one, “but its musical life is delightful.” Among other things she attended observances marking the 50th anniversary of Verdi’s death and visited Casa Verdi, a home for retired musicians.
Freda in The Vancouver Sun, July 15, 1950
Thereafter, news of Freda’s adventures became more infrequent. By the mid-1950s she was teaching music in Bow River, Alta. In 1956, she returned to South Slocan as a guest of John and Bertha Yeatman. She entertained a dinner party at Corra Linn with classical piano selections and also sang and accompanied herself at the South Slocan Women’s Institute spring tea.
I know little of her life thereafter, except that she met and married Dr. J. Alan Thomas. They had three sons, Norbert, Richard, and Eric. Freda died in Vancouver in 2012, age 92. Her husband predeceased her in 2003.
•
The school became part of the Slocan district when it formed in 1946. When Mount Sentinel high school opened nearby four years later, students no longer had to travel to Nelson to continue their education beyond elementary years. Only a few had ever done so as it required boarding in town or arranging transportation.
South Slocan elementary Division 2 students, 1970-71. Back rom, from left, Lance Trevison, Rick Hlookoff, unknown, Connie Swetlikoff, John Verishine, Rod Varney, Frank Broughton, unknown, Popoff, Jim Milton, teacher Mary Gris. Middle row, from left, Jerry Markin, unknown, Carol Mills, Natalie Voykin, Christine Bourgeois, Bill Kootnekoff, unknown, unknown Popoff, unknown, Sharon Voykin, Paul Zeben. Front row, from left, Marlene Wishlow, Kathy Kosiancic, Harold Elasoff, Kim Kerfoot, Cyril Voykin, unknown, Gary Henshaw, John Sherbinin, Brent Jopp, Ron Kernoff. (Courtesy Lance Trevison)
South Slocan elementary Grade 6 students, 1972-73. Back row, from left, Mrs. Zapotichney, Natalie Voykin, Lance Trevison, unknown, Frank Broughton, Connie Swetlikoff, Rod Varney, Rick Hlookoff, Tom Koftinoff. Middle row, from left, Ron Kernoff, Carol Mills, Brent Jopp, unknown Malakoff, Don Kosiancic, unknown, Sharon Voykin, Christine Bourgeois. Fromt row, from left, Marlene Wishow, Kathy Kosiancic, Chris Roberts, Joe Boulin, Cyril Voykin, Harold Elasoff, unknown, Kathy Kinakin, Paul Zeben, John Sherbinin. (Courtesy Lance Trevison)
The Slocan district dissolved in 1970 and South Slocan subsequently joined the Nelson district along with schools in the lower Slocan Valley.
Trustees then began to take a hard look at their small elementary schools. South Slocan, Crescent Valley, and Slocan Park had a combined enrollment of about 240, but none had a gym or dedicated library. Did it make more sense to upgrade all of these buildings or to consolidate them in a new one?
The latter option was chosen and in 1977, Brent Kennedy Elementary opened. Founding principal Alex Pereverzoff had also been principal of South Slocan but initially didn’t get the job at the new school, a decision that was overturned after a huge outcry from parents.
South Slocan school then closed after 59 years (1918-77), or 65 if you count its earlier existence in the community hall.
The pictures below were probably taken in its final year and were included in a history of Brent Kennedy held by the Nelson Museum. The teacher in the bottom photo is the late Leo Hendrix.
At some point in the 1970s or ‘80s, the building (or part of it) was dubbed the Art Folks Home and used as a rehearsal space by local performance troupe Theatre Energy. (I don’t know much about this aspect, however. If you do, let me know.)
In 1981, the basement was rented to a fledging organization called the Vallican-Winlaw Food Co-operative, which started in 1975 before moving to the schoolhouse, which became its first modest storefront. It remained there until relocating in 1985 to Nelson where you know it today as the Kootenay Co-op.
While I’ve never seen a photo of the school during this period, an image appeared in the co-op’s 1981 newsletter purporting to show it. In reality, someone drew a sign on an engraving of a building that looks like it’s out of 19th century England.
The local improvement district acquired the schoolhouse from the school district around 1987 for community use. Wee Ones preschool and daycare operated in the basement. Lynette Lightfoot had her dance studio in one of the classrooms. Deva Peters opened a yoga studio in the same space in 2006. Nik Tatroff had a makeshift recording studio in the school and recorded a soul/urban album there. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Len Reinblatt had a furniture repair. He had been a furniture designer and restorer in Montreal for decades before coming to BC.
The South Slocan schoolhouse seen in March 2000. (Greg Nesteroff photo)
But the rentals hardly made a dent in the upkeep. On Nov. 24, 2020, the South Slocan commission of management, which looked after the building and functions sort of like a village council, reluctantly approved a demolition plan.
Chair Ruby Payne explained that while no one felt very good about the decision, it was one that had been discussed for years. The building never had any official heritage status and turned up on no heritage registers that I am aware of.
The following interior photos were taken in February 2021. The first four photos show the new classroom-turned-dance and yoga studio. The next four photos show the older classroom where a chalkboard remained. The two after that are of the room between the two classrooms and the last two show the daycare in the basement.
Although demolition was expected to begin in 2021, the building received a short reprieve due to the high cost of removing lead-based paint. The RDCK (which took over ownership of the building when it assumed responsibility for the community water system from the improvement district) then tried to incorporate the demolition into a larger project that involved turning the site into a community park with a shelter, making them eligible for otherwise inaccessible grants.
In November 2023, 105 years after the first portion of the school was completed and 88 years or so after its expansion, the RDCK announced that while the shelter and park plans are still in the works, demolition could not wait any longer. They hired a contractor with experience in handling and disposing of hazardous materials.
Before work began, however, someone broke into the building and took the old sinks and toilets. Mirrors and items attached to the walls were removed, but RDCK community services manager Joe Chirico said there wasn’t serious interest in salvage. “I would suggest the lead paint dampened any enthusiasm for recovery,” he said.
The site of the South Slocan school in January 2024.
All that’s left is the foundation and a set of stairs at the bottom of the hill leading up to the school, inscribed “South Slocan.” I’m not sure when they were built (it was prior to 1950), but I’m very fond of them.
In some ways it’s a relief Bob Oliver, South Slocan’s oldest old-timer, who attended the school, isn’t here to see the school gone. He died on Nov. 4, 2023, age 96. Here he is on the student register from 1942.
The South Slocan school outlasted a school at Bonnington that disappeared many years earlier and a Crescent Valley school built in 1913 that burned down in 1971. The schools at Perry Siding, Winlaw, and Appledale all burned down in 1937, but were rebuilt. The old Passmore school was moved in 1969 to become an additional classroom at Mount Sentinel. It was demolished when that wing of the school was rebuilt in 2000-01. A wing at Lucerne school in New Denver from 1919 was also demolished in 1990 to make way for expansion.
Nine old schools are still standing in the Slocan Valley, although only one is of similar vintage to South Slocan. They include Crescent Valley (now the community hall), Slocan Park (ditto), Vallican (now Vallican Heritage Hall), Winlaw (moved from its original location and now a private residence), Appledale (now a daycare), Perry Siding (now the Thread’s Guild Hall), Slocan (now the wellness centre), and Hills (now the community hall).
But here’s the kicker: the school at Silverton, completed in 1917, which is now the Slocan Lake Arts Centre, was built by George McWilliam, the guy jointly responsible for the South Slocan school! While he was criticized at the time for doing a shabby job, I think he’s earned some posthumous redemption in that at least two of his buildings survived more than a century.
Silverton Gallery, built by George McWilliam, is seen in 2014.
South Slocan reunion, July 1981. From left, Dave MacDonald, Elsie Gansner (who both attended and taught at the school) and Jess Ridge. (Dave MacDonald collection)
Updated on March 15, 2024 to add the section about Freda Hofmann. Updated on April 8, 2024 to add the second photo of the school when it only had one room.