The Edmonton (1881) School at 10425 99 Avenue is a one-storey wood schoolhouse, and the Canadian Register of Historic Places calls it the oldest extant public school building in the province. It was built in 1881, opened in January 1882 and served as a school until 1904.
Built by two local contractors
The register names Oliver and McDonald as the builders. The school district formed around the building in 1885 was the first public school district in present-day Alberta, so the schoolhouse came before the district that governed it.
Moved, converted and brought back
The building did not stay put. Before the First World War it was moved and converted into a residence, and in 1982 it was returned to its original site. Alberta designated it a Provincial Historic Resource on October 24, 1983.
Public schooling in Alberta predates the province
Alberta did not become a province until 1905, so this building was taking pupils nearly a quarter century earlier. Local families wanted schooling for their children and built it before any provincial system existed. Modern debates over school funding and structure sit on that foundation, and the 1881 schoolhouse is the plainest physical record of it.
Correction. An earlier version described a squared-log building, named a first teacher and listed school board members and salaries. The register describes a wood schoolhouse and does not support those details, so they were removed.
Related reading from the series. Fort Augustus and Fort Edmonton and the rival posts that founded the capital. Father Lacombe Chapel and Alberta’s oldest standing building.
