The oldest public school building still standing in Calgary is a two storey sandstone structure on 13 Avenue SW called Haultain School. It opened in 1894 and educated Calgary schoolchildren continuously for the next eighty-five years. The building was named for Frederick Haultain, the long-serving Premier of the North-West Territories from 1897 to 1905, in recognition of his role in establishing the territorial education system.
Who Frederick Haultain was
Frederick W.G. Haultain was born in England in 1857, raised in Ontario, and arrived in Fort Macleod in 1884 as a young Ontario lawyer. He was elected to the North-West Council in 1887 and rose quickly to become Premier of the Territorial Government from 1897 until the creation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905. He was the longest-serving territorial premier in Canadian history.
Haultain spent much of his political career fighting for provincial status and for territorial autonomy from Ottawa. He believed the Territories should become a single large province rather than be split into Alberta and Saskatchewan. The federal Liberal government of Wilfrid Laurier overruled him in 1905 and created the two separate provinces along the meridian that still marks the boundary today. Haultain became leader of the opposition in Saskatchewan and eventually Chief Justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.
Why a school got named for him
The territorial era school system was directly Haultain’s project. He pushed through the territorial education legislation, organised the funding structure, and oversaw the early construction wave of permanent schoolhouses across the Territories. The Calgary Public School Board named its 1894 sandstone school after him as recognition of that work.
The school architecture is typical of the period. J.R. Wilson of Child and Wilson designed the building. Thomas Underwood served as the general contractor, with interior finishing completed by William Wood and I.H. Church.
What the building includes
- Two storeys of cut Paskapoo sandstone construction.
- A symmetrical front façade with a central entrance and a small bell tower.
- A standard four-classroom plan with central corridors.
- Tall windows for natural light.
- A modest cornice and pediment on the roofline.
The school opened in September 1894 with roughly two hundred students. By the early 1900s the building was operating at capacity and the Calgary Public School Board was building additional sandstone schools across the city to handle the growth.
From school to heritage building
Haultain School operated as a working school until 1979 when the building was closed and converted to other uses. The structure survived the closure intact and was preserved by the Calgary Public Schools system as a heritage property. The building has been used variously since the 1980s as administrative space, community programming, and event hosting.
The school was given Provincial Historic Resource designation on May 5, 2004, and is listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places as Site ID 5104.
A heritage buff opinion on Haultain and the school
Here is the take. Frederick Haultain is one of the underappreciated figures of western Canadian political history. He led the Territories through the critical period that produced the provinces. He fought for a single large prairie province and lost the fight to Wilfrid Laurier. He spent the rest of his career working from inside Saskatchewan rather than from the position he had wanted. His name is on schools, streets, and a federal riding, but the man himself is largely forgotten outside of academic histories.
The school in Calgary is one of the more durable pieces of his legacy. The building has been standing for one hundred and thirty-one years. It served as a working schoolhouse for eighty-five of those years. Generations of Calgary schoolchildren learned to read inside walls that were built specifically because Haultain pushed through the territorial education legislation that funded the construction.
That is a useful connection. Public infrastructure in Alberta has political fathers. The schools, the courthouses, the federal buildings, and the railways all trace back to specific decisions made by specific people in specific years. Haultain made the school system happen. The Calgary school named for him is the physical evidence of the decision. Worth a slow walk past 225 13 Avenue SW if you find yourself in the Beltline area on a quiet afternoon.
Related reading from the series. The Edmonton 1881 School and the tiny log building that started public education. Stephen Avenue and how Calgary built its sandstone spine.
