Victoria High School (British Columbia) - History

History

The high school opened on August 7, 1876, in a log cabin with two classrooms on the school reserve between Yates Street and Fort Street bounded by Fernwood Road, the grounds of the current Central Middle School building. This same cabin had been the first common (or public) school in British Columbia when it was used as a primary school starting in 1853. In 1882, the high school moved to a new wing of a brick building that had been built in 1875–1876 and had been used exclusively as the primary school until occupied by the high school. By 1882 the high school included 80 students and was situated between the primary girls' school in the east wing and the primary boys' school in the west wing. The high school remained pressed between the boys' and girls' central schools until 1903. Victoria's growing population in the 1890s led to Victoria High School being described as "one of the most inadequate school buildings in the Province" by the principal Edward Paul. In 1902 a third Victoria High School was opened which quickly outstripped by Victoria's burgeoning population. This facility was designed by Francis Mawson Rattenbury, architect of the British Columbia Parliament Buildings and The Empress Hotel (or Fairmont Empress Hotel).

The current Victoria High School, the fourth to bear its name, was opened on May 1, 1914, on 3.5 acres (1.4 ha) of land, donated by the City of Victoria, on Grant Street between Fernwood and Camosun. Streets. The school cost slightly above $460,000. The high school's first principal was S. J. Willis.

The Rattenbury-designed school was demolished in 1953 and in 1954 a new Central Junior High School building was constructed. The school was later known as Central Junior Secondary (grades 7 & 8 ) and as of 2002 currently as a middle school offering French immersion (grades 6–8). It refers to itself as the oldest public school in British Columbia.

Peter L. Smith, himself a graduate of the school and son of Henry L. Smith, longtime principal of Vic High (1934–1955), wrote a history of the school to mark its centennial celebrations in 1976: Come Give a Cheer: One Hundred Years of Victoria High School.

When the province renamed all its high schools 'Secondary School', Victoria High School, Oak Bay High School, and Esquimalt High School were the only schools to retain 'High School' as part of their names.