Landmark Building
JACK PINE GROVE SCHOOL
Eldorena
Built in 1910
The history of Jack Pine Grove School follows a scenario seen across rural Alberta. The details vary, but the trends are the same. During the early twentieth century, as homesteads were being taken up and immigrant families were growing, schools appeared all across the countryside. These were generally small and closely spaced, taking into account the limited mobility of the school population. Most children walked or rode a horse to school.
School District #2051, Jack Pine Grove, was established in 1909 by a committee of local settlers.
In 1910, a wood frame, one-room schoolhouse was erected on SW 3-58-20-W4, just west of the crossroads which later became the centre of Eldorena. It had a hipped roof and was clad in wood siding. Its most striking feature was the bank of large windows along one side. This was a typical feature of schools at the time, intended to provide ample natural light and air, while maximizing the wall surface available for blackboards. Teachers were paid $55 per month, and lived with local families until 1919, when a one-room teacherage was built on the school property. Eventually, the number of students outstripped the little school’s capacity, and a second room was added in 1922 to accommodate them. At the same time, the school property was fenced and a stable was erected. The teacherage was expanded to two rooms in the late twenties.
After 1926, the Tovarystvo Zaporozhe Hall, close by, provided overflow classroom space. This arrangement worked well, and little changed until 1946, when Jack Pine Grove School burned to the ground. The Hall provided an interim venue until a new school could be erected. This was a two-room, stucco clad building with central heating and modern conveniences. It was opened in 1947, and was located some distance further west, on the north-west corner of NW 34-57-20-W4.
Within a few years of its construction, the second Jack Pine Grove School was lifted up and moved away to the town of Radway. This 1953 event was the result of a trend of rural school district consolidations and closures driven by falling population and improved transportation. Today, very few one or two-room schoolhouses remain in operation in Alberta. Jack Pine Grove School played an important role in the lives of many people during its 43 years of operation. That these years were formative and remembered affectionately is borne out by the presence of a monument commemorating the school, its trustees, teachers and students, located on the south-west corner of the Eldorena intersection.
The Landmark Buildings and Places Database draws on the series of walking and/or driving tour booklets produced by Alberta Culture (now Alberta Culture and Community Spirit). The Heritage Community Foundation gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ministry through permission to reprint these materials online. Extracted from Victoria Trail, Kalyna County: Historical Walking and Driving Tours. Alberta Community Development and Kalyna County Ecomuseum, 2004, with permission from Alberta Culture and Community Spirit. Visit the Alberta Culture and Community Spirit for more information.