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A magnificent school with a view

“The view from the upper windows of the building is something grand. The hills and valleys with three separate bodies of water can be seen….” Student George Crawford 1905 

Aerial view of treed rolling hills and 3 bodies of water.

The landscape surrounding MCS today.

 

At Robertson’s insistence, the building and its setting are beautiful. It is situated on the Public Square with a view of the hills, valleys, and three separate bodies of water. Historic Trinity Anglican Church, built in 1789, sits on the opposite side of the road.

 

The school with students and staff standing on the front steps and lawn.

The model school

The school stands 2 ½ stories tall. Its outside walls are an attractive design of shingles and clapboard. Stones from the county jail, which once stood at the same location, have been used for the school’s foundation. The red-trimmed windows are large to keep the rooms airy and bright. The grounds have ample space for the student gardens.

Garden plots set in a rural landscape. Mature trees in foreground, a stone fence on the far side of the garden, and a lake in the distance.

The garden plots behind MCS

 

There are three big classrooms and a teachers’ room on the ground floor. Three more classrooms, a chemistry lab, and the Principal’s room are on the second floor. On the top floor, there is a large assembly and exhibition hall with a stage that has seating on three sides. The furnace and playrooms are in the basement. The dry earth toilets are in a separate building.

A male teacher watches over his students in the chemistry lab. There are ten young woman and three young man participating in class.

The laboratory

A female teacher stands at the blackboard to the right of her students who have their workbooks open on their desks.

Ina Mercereau’s 2nd intermediate classroom

A classroom with a teacher and some students standing at the front. Other young students are sitting at their desks. Pictures of flowers and plants line the classroom wall.Miss Stewart’s primary class

Robertson likes the building but is concerned with its high cost. At $25,000 it is much more than planned. He fears that it will send the wrong message to communities that might consider building their own consolidated school. In the final analysis, Kingston’s MCS costs Macdonald the least of the four schools that he funds.

The local citizens are rightly proud of their new school. They join in both its formal opening and its grand openings.

Student conveyance Leading the way in rural education