History
Senator O'Connor College School (O'Connor, or OCS) was founded by the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Daughters of Wisdom in 1963. The high school was built on land given to them by Senator Frank P. O'Connor, a generous Catholic philanthropist and founder of Laura Secord, a Canadian chocolatier and ice cream company.
Senator O'Connor's House and Garage, and another building, belonging to the Christian Brothers still exist on Campus, and the Christian Brothers still lived there up until 2000.
In the 1970s, the Christian Brothers were an active part of school life teaching classes, held positions in the school administration and assisted with cafeteria monitoring. Former students will fondly remember, “Brother Lunch” who enjoyed speaking to students and provided a welcoming smile especially to students in their first year at O’Connor.
The school used to be split up into three main structures: the main O'Connor building, the JJ Lynch building, and a later addition of a complex of portables under one roof called the "Taj" or affectionately named the "Taj Mahal". There was also another area with over a half dozen portables. There used to be an indoor swimming pool connected to the house, but it was torn down sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. The Christian Brothers' house was located in the center of the campus, and so students would pass right in front of it or around it on all sides daily.
The Christian Brothers' house has been marked as a historic site by the City of Toronto and is protected as such.
Originally the main high school was built to hold 700 students and by the 90s the student population almost doubled that figure. Additions to the school such as the "Taj" were made over the course of the school's history. By 1995 talks of building a new school on the property began. This project was protested by local residents until its approval sometime in the early 2000s. The old buildings were torn down and a large new modern 2 storey high school which opened in the fall of 2005 is now in place.
The former address of the school was 5 Avonwick Gate. The current address of the new Senator O'Connor College School is 60 Rowena Drive. The address change occurred because the entrance to the school was moved to the opposite end of the property that opens onto Rowena Drive. The new building, designed by Kearns Mancini Architects Inc., was partially built where the Lynch building previously stood as well as on the old athletic field.
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