A quick break from the streetcar photos today…
A recent postcard acquisition is this 1916 shot of Begley School. Built in 1913 as the Assumption Street School, the school stood watch over the neighbourhood until it was demolished in 2004.
In 1924, the school was doubled in size and connected by a central tower. Both the original building and the expansion were designed by local architect Albert McPhail.
The school was renamed from Assumption Street school, to Frank Begley, after a long time school board trustee (from what I can remember).
The original building was the western half of the school. Many of the original windows were long since filled in.
In May, 2004, the bulldozers moved in…
…and the original building bit the dust. Currently a new Begley school occupies the site.
Thanks for a look into the past Andrew. I never knew Bagley’s original entrance was located more to the east side of the building. I learn new things on here each day. Thanks.
The bricking over of the windows really destroyed the building’s original aesthetic. Classics like this are dying out quickly–school buildings in particular aren’t valued (it seems) for their history or longevity–too many have been left in benign neglect to the point that replacement becomes the cost-effective solution. Long live WD Lowe.
now it’s 2010 and i’m in grade four i was looking for pictures of begley to print for a school play and now i can’t beleave my eyes begley a.k.a my school has the best history
wow…grade 4, into the city history. good for you yeganeh!
uh-oh….looks like you’re about to get slammed by some jerk off adds Andrew.
Aaron – got it…The spam filter on the site works about 99.7% of the time, every once in a while one sneaks though, and I just have to whack it manually. The filter actually catches 300-400 spam comments a week. So if 1 in every 2500 sneaks past, that’s still not bad 🙂
lol! wow..that’s alot of spam. i guess that’s what happens when your at the top of the list on a google search huh? 😉
It was a grand old building bastardized in the 60s, if you check webshots you can find may photos taken as the old building was coming down. I tried to take some every day.
She had put her time in, students deserved better and now enjoy one of the most modern, energy efficient schools in the country.