Saint-Patrice Academy (from 1934 to 1960)

In 1934, Saint-Patrice Academy was expanded to the east. This expansion, visible on the above photograph, did not generate unanimity in Magog. In fact, it created a major controversy in the Eastern district since it still did not have a boys’ school and because Saint-Patrice Academy was not overcrowded.

“Upon his election to the Catholic School Board, Dr Armand Voyer attempted in vain to block this expansion project. Moreover, as Alain R. Roy points out, the school board, presided over by Dr Albert I. Guertin preferred to centralise schooling for boys at Saint-Patrice Academy. The project of opening a school of crafts at the Academy (a school that opened in 1937), supported by Dr. Guertin, also explains, perhaps, the expansion of the Academy to the detriment of the Eastern district.”[1].

[1] Alain R. Roy (Master’s thesis) Le développement de l’instruction publique catholique à Magog : ses rapports avec le processus d’industrialisation, 1879-1943, Université de Sherbrooke, 1995, p. 117-120.