Between 1907 and 1909 there were 12 pupils including the family of W.C. Dunn, (SE-
14-53-4-W5) where the teacher boarded.
The first school building was built of logs in 1907 by Fraser Kerr and Mr. Peck
on the NW corner of NW 14-53-4-W5 (just south of Wilkinson's Hill). The next school was on the east side of the Lac. Ste. Anne Trail near the N. line of SW 24-53-4-W5 in a building rented from Capt. L.H. Hurst.
Two hundred dollars was spent to upgrade this building in 1914.
This "old school" was still there in my father's youth and, according to School Board correspondence, was used as storage for the school equipment until the equipment was moved in 1920 to Mrs. C.B. Walker's place, (SE 36-53-4-W5).
In 1921 a new school was built on the SE corner of SW 36-53-4-W5 on the west side of the Lac Ste. Anne Trail. The 34 ft. by 26 ft. school was built by William H. Watts of Wabamun for $200 using materials salvaged from a house in Wabamun purchased from Mrs. C.H. Dunn for $321 in October, 1920 . This was probably the building used as a school in Wabamun before 1913. The Dunns had owned the Lakeview Hotel in Wabamun.
Salvaging cost $75 and $38.25 was spent for nails and paper. The material was transported by A.E. Allen (Chairman) at no charge. There was also a frame stable west of the school for four horses and a hand dug well, with a pump (1922). The school was painted white and had a long row of windows on the east side. The teacherage was two rooms on the north end of the school. Heating was by means of a cast iron box stove in the middle of the classroom and a cookstove in the teacherage, sharing a chimney. Playground equipment was a swing. When my father (EHW) and his twin brother (FVW) attended Sylvan (1926-30) the Allen homestead to the north of the school was vacant (moved,1925) and they would play in the barn there.There was also a vacant house, a pig house, and other buildings.
The school opened for education on September 12, 1921 at a total cost to the District of "nearly $1500" according to Mr. Thomas Street's correspondence to the Deputy Minister of Education.
The school operated there until 1930, it was usually closed for the winter months and a one or two week holiday in the summer. Between 1930 and 1936 the Sylvan children went to Rexboro School. The school was reopened in 1937 with Catherine MacLeod as teacher and operated until 1939 when it was permanently closed.
Sylvan remained as a School District until 1948 when it was subsumed into Stony Plain School Division #23. The building was sold to Jack Jones and removed January, 1948 to SE 18-54-4-W5.
As a community centre the school was used for meetings, whist drives, and the Christmas concert, a high point of the year. On Sundays an Anglican Church service led by Rev. Eliot was held.
There usually wasn't much traffic on the Lac Ste. Anne Trail except during the Pilgrimage in July, when the students would see a lot of wagons going by, the driver carrying a long whip, usually accompanied by several dogs running under the back axle.
Generally 25 sections of land comprised a School District for taxation purposes. Only the farm property was assessed as to value. The borders of the Districts were changed from time to time. depending on population shifts. The schools were generally built as close as possible to the centre of the District so that theoretically no child should have to travel more than two and one half miles to school. The changing of these borders was almost invariably a cause of friction as each District set its own mill rate and school location.
Picture of the school -1937-38
School Census of Pupils - 1923-1930, 1937-1939
Map of the Sylvan District - 1925
Map of the Sylvan District - 1936
Sylvan School Trustees, 1916 - 1948
Selected Correspondence of the Sylvan School Division, 1916-1928
Essay: ISSUES IN SYLVAN SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1739 - 1916 TO 1930
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