History of Nutana Collegiate     

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On July 1 1906, the merger of the three  communities of Saskatoon, Riversdale and Nutana created the City of Saskatoon.  It was a city with six doctors, six lawyers, three dentists, two veterinarians, a surveyor, an engineer, an architect, six banks, and reflecting the optimism of the time, 30 to 40 real estate offices, that optimism was justified.  The population grew from 3,000 in 1906 to some 28,000 by 1912.  In October 1907, the Deputy Commissioner of Education for the provincial government met with the Nutana and Saskatoon School Boards to discuss the establishment of a collegiate.

Five board members were elected for the High School District of Saskatoon in December 1907:  J.F. Cairns, W.J. Bell, D.P. McKinnon, John Ashworth and Dr. Chas W. Doran.  Unfortunately, according to a memo at the beginning of the High School Board Minute Book, because the district had not actually been formed at the time of the election, the election was void.  A new election was held on April 30.  Cairns was elected Chairman and W.P. Bate served as Secretary-Treasurer.

In 1908, the collegiate pupils were withdrawn from other school systems.  In a letter written on the occasion of the collegiate's fifteenth anniversary, J.A. Speer, who joined the staff of the collegiate in 1908, reminisced about the early years.  For two years, classes were held in the Butler Block on the corner of Avenue C and 20th Street.  The building had originally been designed as a store with living accommodations above and each of its two stories had four rooms.  Speers, A.J. Mather (Principal), Mr. Fleming and Miss McKenzie made up the staff of the collegiate.

For those who lived on the east side of the river, the journey to and from school could be hazardous.  Nearly three-quarters of a century later Helena McDonald, who lived in a house on the corner of ninth and Lorne Avenue, vividly described her experiences:

"This caused me to walk across the river on the C.N.R. Bridge which had no footpath.  There were lots of upright things to stand under and hang on

if a train came, but at each end of the bridge there was an approach only for train and track, with a very steep bank down.  I was never caught there . . .

Then we bought a home 515 - 10th Street in Nutana and I was sure glad to see the Collegiate built on 11th Street, I could get there so fast and never

carry cold lunch any more."

Building The Collegiate

The Site

At its meeting on January 29 1909, the Board decided to tender for sites for the Collegiate Institute.  The sites were to be three to four acres in size and tenders were to be received by February 15.  Four tenders were received:  Butler Byers' offered Block 14, Plan FV, for $10,000; the Saskatoon School Trustees offered the "Caswell Hill" site at $7,200 plus interest as paid; Ashworth and Holmes presented Lots 1-6; Block 16, Plan FK as continuation of the Caswell Hill site at $3,200, and F.R. Oliver offered Block A4, the western portion of the old Louise Grounds in Nutana for $20,000.  By the end of March, the Board had made a deal with Oliver for the purchase of Block A4 for $18,000.  No reason for the choice is given in the minutes of the High School Board meetings but, with the opening of the Traffic Bridge, the ease of access from all parts of the city probably weighed heavily in favour of the Nutana location.

Financing

On April 21 1909, the Board agreed to petition City Council to submit a bylaw to the electors to raise $125,000 for building the collegiate; this amount to include the cost of the site, the building, furniture, architect's fees and construction supervision.  Initially, there was opposition to the bylaw, some objecting to the amount of money being spent, others arguing that the collegiate should be located on the west side.  Counter arguments stressed that the effort to obtain the university would look ridiculous if the city were to turn down a collegiate, the bylaw was passed on May 18 1909.

Tendering

Some twenty architects submitted sketch plans for the consideration of the High School Board.  A short list of four was drawn up:  W.W. LaChance, Webster and Noel, Storey and Van Egmond and R.W. Lines.  On June 12 1909, the classic French Renaissance design of Story and Van Egmond of Regina was accepted.  Conditions were attached to the contract; the architects had to supply specifications and materials acceptable to the Board and the Board had to receive a satisfactory tender under $90,000 or the architects would receive no payment.  The architect supplied finished plans and specifications on July 13 1909.  The lowest construction tender was submitted by the Saskatchewan Construction Co. of Regina at $84,555, plus the options of the fireproof stairs at $6,000, temperature regulation at $3,000 and an air-washer at $900.  The Saskatchewan Construction Co. was awarded the construction contract.  On August 24, the Board approved the location of the school on the site: parallel to 11th Street and 60 feet north of it and 75 feet from Victoria Avenue.  Two weeks later they appointed J.G. Patterson to superintend construction.

Description

The original school had three storeys plus a basement.  It measured 121 feet by 79 feet.  The exterior was constructed of pressed brick and white stone, with the main entrances each supported by four massive white stone pillars.  The front and rear of the structure was identical.  This imposing building dominated the skyline along the riverbank for many years.  The principal's office, reading room, library, teachers' room and seven classrooms were located on the main floor.  The first floor contained six classrooms, three laboratories and a darkroom.  The top floor housed the auditorium, which measured 43 feet by 70 feet and had a stage, and four small rooms one at each corner.  The basement was designed with a 35 feet by 71 feet gymnasium, a heating plant, girls' and boys' recreation rooms, domestic science room, kitchen, sewing room, lunchroom and three manual training rooms.  Cloakrooms and washrooms were located on each floor.  There was a drinking fountain in every classroom.  The original plans called for an all-brick basement, but cement concrete and brick were actually used because, the architects indicated, this would allow for better and quicker construction.  The Board decided to install a Johnson temperature regulation system and fireproof stairs, the extra cost of these to be met by petitioning Council to submit to the ratepayers a bylaw to provide $9,000 more by means of debenture.

Costs

A letter from the contractors, the Saskatchewan Construction Company Limited to the architects, Story and Van Egmond, on February 26 1911, provided a final estimate of expenses:

Main Construction	$84,555
Stairs	6,000
Temperature Regulator	3,000
Laboratory Fittings	3,980
Additional Ventilation	450
Drain to Victoria Avenue	225
Wiring for Additional Bells and Clocks	300
False Ceiling under Labs	105
Setting Additional Blackboard    including Trim, Paint	200
12 Platforms    (installed before authorization of fireproof stairs - then cut out)	400
	$99,215
Amended by Story & Van Egmond	-       240
	$98,975

Additional costs were sent directly to the Board's Secretary-Treasurer, W.P. Bate, in a letter dated February 28 1911:

Story and Van Egmund submitted an invoice on March 24 1911 for 5% of $97,535, which would have been $4,876.75 so presumably actual costs differed slightly from the final estimate.

Opening Day

The collegiate opened on Tuesday September 6 1910.  Interior construction continued as the students commenced their studies.  A major cause for the delay was late delivery of the material for the fireproof stairways.  According to the Phoenix, plumbers were still at work all over the building, temporary lighting had to be installed, desks and laboratory fittings had yet to arrive, and the heating was not working.

Ninety-five students attended on the first day, but one out-of-town student left in disgust, because of the mess, the cold and the noise.  The following week the Board agreed to provide temporary heating by renting coal oil stoves at 25 cents each week.  In spite of these setbacks, the newspaper described the collegiate building as "one of the most beautiful and finely situated in the city."

The staff of the collegiate on the first day of term were:  Principal Archibald Jennings Mather, B.A., teaching classics and history; J.A. Speers, B.A. B.Sc., science; Miss A. Maud Bennett, B.A., moderns and senior English; J. Nelson, commercial specialist; J. Walter Hedley, M.A., mathematics; and Mr. W.E. Edmonds, B.A., history and junior English.

Early Years

Overcrowding was the recurring theme of the early years.  The school was designed for 350 students.  Ninety-five collegiate students attended the opening day, with an attendance of about 120 anticipated later in the school year.

But the collegiate was also home to the new University of Saskatchewan.  Three rooms on the third floor were made available to the university and temporary stairs had to be installed so that the university students could reach their new home.  The first university graduations took place at the collegiate, which remained the home of the university until August 1912, when the university buildings were finished.

In 1912, the Public School Board rented two basement rooms and the Normal School also rented a room, to be used for teacher training.  In January 1913, Principal Mather wrote to the Collegiate Board that the entire school was needed for collegiate students.  He reported that he had to convert the Reading Room into a classroom and one of the cloakrooms into a typing room.  The four classrooms being used by the Normal School would be needed by September to accommodate an anticipated enrolment of 400 students.  The Normal School was asked to vacate, but remained for another year because of difficulties in finding an alternate location.

The November 1912 annual report of the Secretary-Treasurer, W.P. Bate, to the "Chairman of Ratepayers" indicated that expenditures on the collegiate property had  continued at a fairly high level, even after occupation of the building.  During the year, $650.53 was spent on permanent improvements to the building, $753.15 on landscaping, sidewalks, etc. plus the costs of purchasing additional furnishings and some repair work.  All the exterior stonework and roof were cleaned by hand, the grounds were graded, tennis courts built and the lawn seeded.

Internally, the walls received their permanent finishes and the heating, which had proved temperamental, overheating some rooms and failing to warm others, was improved by covering the steam-pipes with asbestos.  The boiler also needed repair.  1912 saw the completion of the auditorium furnishings, with the provision of curtains and folding seats.  The curtains were installed because sound reverberations had made the "room useless for any gathering where speeches or songs (were) delivered."  Originally, a room in the basement had been designed to hold coal for the boilers, but clouds of coal dust had sifted into the building when coal was being delivered so, in 1912, an outside coal bin was excavated.  Shannon Bros. and Cassidy performed the work.  The total cost for the excavation and concrete was $1,432.67.  According to the 1912 report, the former coal bin, which was a twenty-foot square room adjoining the gymnasium, was to be converted into a portion of the basement playground by cutting an access through from the gymnasium.  The same report promised that the Teachers' Room and Library would be furnished early next year.

A Second Collegiate

Enrollment during the school year 1916-17 was 667, by December 1918 stood at 708 and, by 1919, 846 were attending the collegiate, about twice the number it was designed to hold.

There was a general consensus in the city that new facilities were required to house the student population, but feelings ran high over whether there should be a centralized system, with one major collegiate and a series of junior high schools, or a regional system.  Initially, the collegiate board approved a centralized system, and proposed a $350,000 bylaw to expand the existing building, but on the west side of the city a committee was formed to fight for a west side collegiate.  At the same time as the money bylaw was voted on and approved, tax payers voted 3 to 1 to build a new collegiate on the west side.  However, the school board delayed construction because of continuing financial problems.

Meanwhile, by November 1921, 1,037 day time students and 200 night students were crammed into the collegiate building, five rooms were rented at the YMCA for commercial classes and three classrooms at the new Mayfair public school.  The auditorium was curtained to provide two classrooms, the four corner attic rooms, although considered inadequate, were pressed into service and both the library and the study room became classrooms.

In 1922, the students were organized into two shifts and moved back to the collegiate building.  "A" School attended from 8:30 am to 10:45 am and from 1:30 pm to 3:15 pm;  "B" School from 10:45 am to 1:15 pm and 3:15 pm to 5:15 pm.

Eventually, in 1923, Bedford Road Collegiate was finished and one complete school moved across the river.  On May 29 1923, when the new collegiate was formally opened, the Saskatoon Collegiate Institute was renamed Nutana Collegiate Institute.

Major Alterations and Additions

By 1927, Nutana was again overcrowded, with 940 students.  Inspectors' reports for the period complain that, once again, the four corner rooms on the top floor were being used as classrooms, in spite of poor lighting and ventilation, and three classes were without regular classrooms.  Poor ventilation in the basement gymnasium was improved in 1927, but by 1928, after the four top floor rooms had to be abandoned because of their inadequacies, the facilities were "taxed to the uttermost."

In 1929, a number of alterations were made to the building:  the heating plant was improved, a fire escape installed from the auditorium and the drafting room moved to the top floor - the former drafting room became a store room.

The first major addition to Nutana Collegiate was the gymnasium constructed on the north west side in 1930.  It cost $33,000 and was described enthusiastically in the January 1931 report by the school superintendent.  He commented on its excellent floor, the prospective swimming pool (which was never built) and the shower-baths.

There were, apparently, no major changes for the next twenty years.  The ubiquitous top story corner rooms continued to cause problems in the thirties.  In 1947, the lighting in the school was upgraded and the principal's office and men's staff room remodeled.

In July 1952, the Collegiate Institute Board retained the architectural firm of Webster and Gilbert to design a major addition to Nutana Collegiate.  The construction contract was awarded to Shannon Brothers for $238,000.

The addition was constructed on the north side of the collegiate in 1953.  The flat-roofed, two-story structure contained the Memorial Library, three classrooms, and audio-visual room, workroom, conference room, stack room, male and female teachers' rooms complete with washrooms and students' washrooms.  The exterior was constructed with brick and terracotta tile.  The brick was No. 1 Redcliffe to match the exterior of the 1930 gymnasium.  The library was designed as a memorial to the Nutana students who were killed in World War II and a student contribution of $18,000 helped fund its construction.  Today, a wall plaque outside the library entrance acknowledges the students who died.

Other work that year included placing a high fence around the playing field at a cost of $2,287 for materials, to make it safer for the students and to stop the public walking across, the redecoration of three rooms on the top floor and the installation of fluorescent lights in the auditorium and the gymnasium.  Renovations, billed by the contractor, H.J. Tubby & Sons Ltd., at $10,950, were made to the auditorium, stage, offices, showers and laboratories at the end of 1958.  The plans for this work were drawn up by Webster and Forrester Architects.

In June 1964 a building permit was issued for a new gymnasium to be constructed on the east side.  This measured 95 feet by 149 feet and is 36 feet high.  It has a brick exterior and a painted core block interior wall covering with a tar and gravel roof.

A year later, the 1930 gymnasium was converted into classrooms at a cost of $55,000.  The interior of this structure was demolished.  The steel sash and stone sills of the windows were removed, as were the bleachers and the wooden stairs from the main floor to the basement.  Some existing windows and doorways were filled in.  The twenty foot high gymnasium was divided into two storeys.  Two large classrooms and office space were built on the main floor and two large classrooms and a small one on the upper floor.  The architect was William Webster and the general contractors were Smith Brothers and Wilson.

in February, 1982, a building permit was issued for renovation work to install a dental clinic in the building.  Holiday-Scott was the architect, Jennings Construction the contractor and the work was valued at $23,000.

In the summer of 1987, two children broke into the school and activated some of the fire hoses, causing considerable water damage.  Much of the remaining original plasterwork was destroyed by this vandalism.

This section is entitled "Major Alterations and Additions", but two subtractions should also be noted.  At some point in the 1960's a landslide on the riverbank deprived the collegiate of some of its tennis courts.  Author, Max Braithwaite, who attended Nutana Collegiate in the early thirties, had been impressed by Nutana's tennis courts.

". . . I've been associated with many collegiates since and I've never seen one to compare with it.  Six tennis courts!  I haven't seen a school with one tennis court . . ."

Another distinguished alumnus, Mr. Justice P.H. Maguire, who attended the collegiate from 1914-17, recalled carving his name on a flagpole which was located on the projection of the roof over the front door, but he noted that the flagpole had since been removed.

The original facade of the building is intact, as is most of the western exterior, and the 1930's addition blends with the original architecture.  About half of the northern exterior can still be seen and it is possible to discern the majestic proportions of the original entrance on this side.  The upper portions of the eastern exterior remain visible.  Fortunately, the roofline of the structure is virtually unaltered and thus retains its familiarity as a landmark on the riverbank.  On the interior, portions of the stairwells appear to be original and some of the top floor ceilings may still be in place.

The Archives

Nutana Collegiate is fortunate to have an extensive and well-indexed archival collection.  Documentation dates from the construction of the building and material on subsequent property alterations is extensive, although not inclusive.  There is print material covering almost every aspect of school life - musical endeavours, library society, students' society, staff meetings, newsletters, reunions, reports to and by school superintendents and alumni news clippings, to list only a few.

Pictures of alumni, construction activities and other major events, sports teams, the choral society, orchestra and cadets in training find a home in the archives as do awards, trophies and memorabilia from various clubs and reunions.  The archives also house documentation on the provenance of the Memorial Art Gallery paintings and information on the artists.

Note:  Collegiate/High School

Although the Saskatoon Collegiate Institute was known by that name from the time of its construction, it was officially a high school.  To be raised to the rank of a collegiate institute by the Department of Education, it had to have a minimum of four teachers and possess a specified inventory of teaching equipment.  The High School Board was then required to petition the Education Department to change the status of the school.  Correspondence between the Deputy Minister and the Board's Secretary-Treasurer on the subject shows that a petition had not been sent as late as November 1911.

Graduates of the Collegiate

Hundreds of notable Canadian and local personalities were educated at the Collegiate, many of whom have publicly acknowledged the influence of the Collegiate in their lives.  Max Braithwaite, the internationally-acclaimed novelist, described the school in the early thirties:

"It was a great school for drama and showbiz and generally showing off.  Every Friday was Lit night and anyone who dared could get on the stage and recite or sing, or play the guitar, or put on skits, or do monologues."

The following is a partial list of well-known Nutana graduates:

• Rt. Hon. John G. Diefenbaker and his wife, the former Olive Freeman

• Max Braithwaite, author

• Justice P.H. Maguire Court of Appeal, Saskatchewan, awarded Governor-General's medal at end of last year at Collegiate (1917)

• Farley Mowat, author

• Emmett Hall

• Ten Rhodes Scholars - John Weir, Chalmers Clar, Edward Bence, Phillip Moncur, Francis Leddy (later head of Windsor University), Donald Weir, Eric Bergbusch, Robert Moncur, Robert Hutcheon and John Stilborn

• Raynell Andreychuk, first female president of the YMCA; chancellor of the University of Regina; assistant deputy minister of social services, Government of Saskatchewan; High Commissioner to Kenya

• Senator E.W. (Staff) Barootes

• Senator Sidney Buckwold

• George Genereaux and Bob Adams

• Charles "Red" Hay president, British American Oil Company and Gulf Oil

• Brent Ashton, Detroit Red Wings, NHL

• Ray Hnatyshyn - Federal Justice Minister

• Charles Mayer - Federal Wheat Board Minister

• Geoff Wilson, M.P.

• Mayor Cliff Wright

• Lt. Gov. George Porteous

• Dr. Donald Wilson, who performed the first Canadian heart transplant

• Hilda Neatby, Canadian Historian

• Senator Hazen Argue

• Air-Vice Marshall Ralph McBurney

Nutana Principals

A.J. Mather - 1908 to 1915

A.J. Pyke - 1915 to 1922

A.W. Cameron - 1922 to 1937

G.A. Bonney - 1937 to 1952

D.M. Wilson - 1952 to 1956

M.H. G. Cox - 1956 to 1961

G.M. Munro - 1961 to 1965 (1964-65 leave)

L.H. Patterson - 1964 to 1967 (1965-66 leave)

S.A. Penley - 1965 to 1966 (Replacement)

A.H. Rein - 1967 to 1972

R.P. Nickel - 1972 to 1975

R.A. Perkins - 1975 to 1982

L. Fast - 1983 to 1986

R.N. Hunter - 1986 to 1995

R.A.J. Sawyer - 1995 to 1996

M. LeClaire - 1996 to 2000

B.C. Bradshaw - 2000 to 2002

B.P. Flaherty - 2002 to 2006

S.M. Figley - 2006 to