It’s amazing how little Westmount School has changed in 100 years. Exactly a century separates the two images presented here and from this viewing angle, the building appears much as it was. We’re in Edmonton’s Inglewood neighbourhood, and shooting another BIGDoer,com Then & Now. Come tag along and have some fun.
Westmount School is a grand structure, it must hold a million memories, and standing in front is like being transported back in time. This brick and stone edifice is definitely of another era – one need not a student of architecture for that to be clear. It seems out of place in busy, modern world, but then so are many of us in some ways.
That old image – there’s so many questions and perhaps it’s ones we can never answer. What became of those kids seen in the Then image? Who are they, what’s their story and what’s the reason they got together to be memorialized on film? An event, special occasion or simply a class photo?
Westmount School Edmonton 100 Years Apart: it hasn’t changed! Pop history with Chris Doering & Connie Biggart (BIGDoer/Synd).
Thanks to “Byron Robb” for helping out and sponsoring this page. Be like Byron…
At present nothing is sure, but in our dreams, we’d go to the ends of the earth to find the backstory. If only resources would allow it. Still, we did a quick search, but found nothing definite as to what happening this day.
Scroll down for photos and to comment.
The Then photo come from the University of Calgary and is in the McDermid Studio collection. It’s dated 1924, but there’s no other accompanying information. McDermid was a large commercial photography company in Edmonton starting in the 1910s and remained in business in some capacity into recent times.
Many older photos from their collection are at the UofC and they’re a window into another time. They were pros, with images technically awesome and always well composed. There’s a lot of them there and in all likelihood, we’ll be using more in comparisons like this. Stay tuned – Edmonton here we come!
Construction of Westmount School began in 1913 and a couple years passed before it opened. Even then, the second floor remained unfinished until some time later in the 1920s. This was due financial difficulties at the school board and thanks to a shortage of building materials.
The cost of construction was just over two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars and it came in a tad over budget. Does anyone care to guess what that amount would get you in Edmonton today? A refrigerator box under Groat Bridge, a doghouse in behind a Walmart, or a pup-tent in Mill Creek Ravine? Maybe, but even then it’d be touch and go.
That two hundred+ k works out to over five million and change in today-bucks.
Westmount School is in the Collegiate Gothic style. It was popular design of that era and many larger learning institutions constructed across North America at the time looks similar. Thanks to this, these buildings are instantly identifiable as some kind of school.
Collegiate Gothic building typically feature towers, buttresses, and crenellations (like a battlement, low walls atop a roof with regular-spaced indents) which gives an almost castle-like appearance. Stately entrances and stone carvings are also a common feature. Bricks came from a local source and Limestone from Indiana. Those wood doors are substantial and mean business.
The building has plenty of windows to let in natural light.
Westmount, and all other schools in Edmonton closed during the Spanish Flu pandemic that swept the city in 1918. Many school, including this one, functioned as recovery centres during this time and this practice continued for many months. The school reopened early the following year.
They say the ghost of one Felicia Graham, a teacher from Toronto assigned to Westmount just before the pandemic, haunts the school. Felicia vanished under strange circumstances during the outbreak, and what became of her remains a mystery. It’s suspect she perished at this time, however a body never turned up. The school was a place of importance in her life and to which she returns to from time to time. So says the legend.
Every old building has a resident ghost it seems.
Prior to Westmount locals kids attended class at a number of smaller schools and in makeshift places. The floor above a store for example and a church, were two mentioned. This was the edge of Edmonton and the general area was not well developed at the time. While Westmount School is located in the the Inglewood Neighbourhood, it takes its name from the Westmount Neighbourhood, which is only a street away.
Westmount opened in 1915, with seven teachers and eight class rooms. Grades one through eight were taught, initially, but at various times they covered any and all grades. Today and for some time, it’s functioned as a Junior High (grades seven though nine). Cree and French are taught as second second languages.
Enrollment is presently just over three hundred, but at various points in the past, it was sometimes much greater than this.
A gymnasium was added in the early 1970s, but otherwise, the building retains its as built appearance. A large sports field surrounds the building, as so many mature trees. They’ve been around a long time and thought the school has many stories to tell, they could add a tale or two themselves.
Westmount was one a five schools built around this same time in Edmonton. All are imposing brick structures and one, McDougall is quite close in design. In an oppsie moment, we originally did this Then & Now wrong and McDougall plays a big part. Scroll down to the photos and see.
When planning this piece, we located a school we thought was the one in the Then photo and that was good enough for us. Bingo, shot, done, it’s in the can and there’s nothing really to question.
The comparison looked fine and only on closer examination later did something seem off. Wait, it’s not the school and while both are similar in so many ways, there’s a few (now obvious) architectural differences. Look at the windows on either side of the entry in the wrongly-done comparison and it’ll become clear.
Silly us, shooting a Then & Now at the wrong spot and we didn’t even realize it till later. Oblivious to it all and yet, it worked (almost). How we didn’t catch the name difference is something we can’t answer. Maybe we were too caught up in the moment to notice…yeah, let’s run with that.
Incidentally, Westmount and McDougall Schools are not all that far from each other – a couple kms.
What differs 1924 to 2024?
Let’s see…not much…this going to be a quick one. The sidewalk is bigger now…there’s a couple security cameras at the entrance today…that light over the door…that’s all. After a century, remarkably little has changed. The girls in the old photo lived out their lives and are likely all gone, the world around has changed considerably and yet from this angle, time has seemingly stopped. That’s a wild and incomprehensible concept in a hyper-paced world.
Back in 1924, those girls could never imagine what we have today and perhaps would be surprised that Westmount School still functions as it did. It was a school then and is a school now. It looks solid and well kept, a testament to the craftspeople that built and those who maintain it today. It’s fine building and it must be loved.
We hoped you enjoyed this Then & Now as much as we did creating it. They are a fun little diversion and stay tuned for more. We have dozens waiting in the wings and are always shooting more.
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Date of adventure: 1924 (original) and 2024 (Team BIGDoer) – 100 years exactly. Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Inglewood Neighbourhood. Article references and thanks: University of Calgary, the books, “Looking Back, a Century of Education in Edmonton Public Schools” & “Edmonton’s West Side Story”, Medicine Hat & District Genealogical Society and City of Edmonton Public Schools.
Westmount School in Edmonton exactly 100 years apart.
Construction started in 1913 but it was not opened till two years later.
It’s a grand structure built in the Collegiate Gothic style.
You just have to look and there’s little details everywhere.
It’s located in Edmonton Inglewood Neighbourhood.
Cupolas, often found in older buildings, were for ventilation.
It’s one of two schools in Edmonton built to this design.
It’s currently a Junior High and has an enrollment of about 325.
There’s plenty of glass to help naturally illuminate the interior.
Oppsie!
We shot at the wrong building originally (similar looking McDougall School) and only on closer examination some time later, did that become obvious. Yes, you can make fun of us. Note the spacing between the first and second set of windows present in the old photo, but not seen on Westmount school. It’s the wrong one, yet it almost worked! Damn, we’re good – said while grinning sheepishly.
A silly mistake – that’s McDougall School in the Now photo.
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