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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Lampson Street School

Here's one of our oldest school buildings, built in 1913. There was an earlier small building put up in 1903 but it was replaced by this building ten years later. I find it interesting how attitudes to education are reflected in school architecture. This school, Victoria High School (1914) and Camosun College (Young Building 1914) were all erected during a time when education was still in the classical mode as reflected in their neo-classical design. Learned people knew Latin and Greek and were familiar with ancient European scholars and philosophers. The genders were separated - both Lampson and Vic High (1914) still have the "Boys" and "Girls" wings to the school, identified indelibly in cement. And these schools were built during a time when popular education was a relatively new concept and a good education was still viewed as somewhat of a privilege. Below is a bit more information provided at the school.

7 comments:

JoJo said...

Is it still used for school purposes?

Benjamin Madison said...

Hi JoJo - I think it's used a bit for a pre-school or kindergarten but not as a school at present.

JoJo said...

My old elementary/high school was built in the early 1900s and they want to demolish it. My town used to be so small that K-12 was in one school, till I was in 6th grade. I'm glad yours remains standing.

Stephanie said...

Nice shot of the school.

William Kendall said...

Quite an impressive building.

Unknown said...

yes, it is now. it's used as a high school for the high school kids from École Victor-Brodeur down on Head Street.

Unknown said...

I used to attend this school in the early 1990's. I heard this school was to be torn down ? It's been over 20 years since I've been back to Victoria so I don't know if it is true. I wish all schools were still like this. I mean, look at it ! The architecture is amazing.