Haultain School

This is the Haultain School originally called South Ward School. It was just the third school built in Calgary and dates back to 1894. It is also the oldest remaining school in the city. Interestingly there was a mistake made in the keystone. The date on the left reads 1892 when it was actually built in 1894 and the keystone itself was actually carved in 1920, not 1922. In the 1890s, the city was divided into wards and naturally, this school was located in the South Ward. It was the first school to have the luxuries of both running water and electricity. The building served as a school until a much larger one was built next door and named after Sir Frederick Haultain who served as Premier of the Northwest Territories until Alberta became a province. For several years it was the office of the School Superintendent before being annexed to a larger school in 1922. The large school which in 1925 had the most students in Calgary at 525 was eventually closed in 1962 due to declining enrollment. Then in 1964, the addition was destroyed by fire. After being registered as a Provincial Historic Resource, the smaller Haultain school was purchased by the City of Calgary in 1980 and became a new office for Calgary Parks.