PELHAM DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL -1941

[Pnyx 1960]

On the fifteenth of September, 1926, the Honourable Richard Harcourt laid the cornerstone. And the building was ready for use in September, 1927. The first day in the new school there  were  present  seventy-two pupils and three teachers, F.H. Hicks, Principal, Miss J. Bell and Miss Metler. Of the seventy-two pupils several asked for Upper School subjects. The Board at once engaged another teacher, Miss E.M.de la Mater, whose valued career with  the school continued until her retirement in 1948.

The school consisted of, what is now the old gymnasium, the four classrooms around it on the ground floor , a balcony across the front end of the gymnasium, and  the stage at the other end.The Formal Opening, with te Hon. Wm. Finlayson, Minister of Lands  and Forests, speaking to a large crowd, took place on Dec. 16, 1927.

At first the curriculum was purely academic with no frills, but in 1928 Percy Becket began the training of a school orchestra after school hours. He worked for  nine years with such enthusiasm and drive that this first extra-curricular activity was highly successful. The orchestra played at garden parties and social events in the vicinity, spreading goof will for the school in the community.

In 1929  W.G. Spencer succeeded Mr. Hicks as Principal. He added a commercial department for which the balcony was enclosed as a classroom, an unusual classroom. The next year a course in agricculture was introduced and in 1931 a fifth teacher was needed. That same year Walter La Rose, the first in a line of outstanding students, won a University Scholarship.

Mr. E.L. Crossley succeeded Mr. Spencee as Principal in 1932. He had ambition for the school but those first years were depression years and no one in the government thought that the  slump could be broken by spending money on schools. The Board tried  to keep expenses to a minimum without impairing the standard of the school. The principal, with his limited budget, was working for a school that would help the students in other ways besides the academic. He stressed the Agricultural Course; the Pnyx was started in 1933; the Junior Girls’ Basketball Team won the  Provincial Championship in 1934. Meanwhile registration had climbed to 125.

The school survived the Depression and the war with little change. In 1939 the boys  formed a corps of Army Cadets, many of whom saw  service before the war ended. In the evenings the classrooms were open for Short Courses in Agriiculture, for Junior Farmers meetings and Homemaking Clubs as well as for social evens. Evening classes were held in Agricultural Current Events, Typing and English. The  janitors during this period ,  Archie Beamer and later Jake  Rinker, had all they could do to clean the  rooms between day classes and night classes.

In 1941 the Board added the upper rooms around the old gymnasium and opened them  for use in 1944. when the balcony was torn down to make way for the stairs. The Commercial Class had a regular classroom. At the same time a Shop and Home Economics addition was built at the rear and there  was a room in the new basement for an Agricultural Shop.