...from George Street Stories by Ed Arnold & George Elliott 2007 (with permission) PCVS Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School, like the armoury beside it, is another building of historical significance not only because of the age of its bricks and mortar but more importantly its people. The PCVS was the only public high school in Peterborough until the 1950s, when the board built a new high school in the south end and named it for former PCVS principle H.R. Kenner. Kenner was born in 1867 in Cornwall, England, and moved to Canada the age of four. He was educated in Toronto and graduated from the University of Toronto then began his teaching career and Orillia, followed by Caledonia, Fergus, and Listowell before moving to Peterborough to teach at the original school on Murray Street. It had 210 students and seven teachers. (When he retired, there were 40 teachers and 900 day students) He became heavily involved in the community as library Board Chairman, YMCA director, Rotary club member, and vice president of the chamber and he was a Mason. When the new PCVS building lineup in 1908, he was chosen principle, the position he held for 35 years, having taught for 15 years here before that. During his time at PCVS, he was president of the sports club for rugby, lacrosse, hockey, baseball, bicycling, and curling to me: he also umpired baseball games and was a hockey goal judge. He retired in 1943 and died the following year. When he retired, he wouldnt take a gratuity from the board because teachers of the day didnt get one. A school principal who preceded Kenner was Cortez Fessenden, who co-authored the first Canadian physics book textbooks used in Ontarios Department of Education. His nephew was Reginald Fessenden, who says Cortez was his favorite uncle. Reginald mustve learned well from his uncle for the younger Fessenden is the first human on the planet earth to transmit voice over the air, the first to send a voice signal over the Atlantic. He was a Canadian inventor who developed the concept of radio, gyroscopes, tracer bullets, and early television. The inventor did say he was influenced by his Peterborough uncle and remembered the times in 1897 when he stood on the shore Chemong Lake experimenting with sound waves with his uncle. A lesser-known PCVS graduate who should be better-known was teacher “Bobby” Morris, whose real name was Francis J a Morris. He was one of the first, according to Robertson Davies, to recognize “that he was living in one of the great botanical areas of the North American continent”, Davies wrote. “The Cavan swamp was full of orchids. Everybody knew it, but nobody paid any particular attention until Bobby Morse explored the swamp, with some of his pupils, and eventually wrote a book about the orchids there that has become a classic of its kind.” Many people from PCVS became well known, but none more than Lester B Pearson, who became prime minister of Canada and was awarded the Nobel peace prize. The Pearson family moved here in 1907 when Pearsons father became minister at George Street Methodist Church. They lived in the parsonage on Water Street, currently the site of a day care named after Lester Pearson. Rev. E.A. Pearson had three sons : Marmaduke, Lester, and Vaughan. The family lived here for four years before moving to Hamilton. Pearson attended Central Public School in Peterborough when R. F. Downey was his teacher. Downey later remember that Pearson was “one of the best all round pupils I have ever enjoyed the privilege of teaching.” He also had the highest marks in the class and won a scholarship, but outside the classroom he enjoys sports, also enjoy baseball and hockey in the area. (Pearson returned to Peterborough in 1967 to open the R.F. Downey public school named in honor of the teacher.) When PCVS was planned, it was to be the largest and best equipped high school in the province, accommodating 400 students with an assembly Hall the third floor. By 1907 it was to cost $61,000 the high school officially opened on November 27, 1908, but some of the Peterborough public thought the new collegiate was a waste. Their views were countered by the Peterborough Examiner, who called these critics “Unintelligible opposition.” The paper went on to say in its editorial, “The population does not seem to be seized of the great importance of the laying of the cornerstone and what it stands for.” The objections were against public funds being used for school “for the well to do.” Those against it argued “that a flouring mill is the only necessity in the community because everybody consumes bread.” The school went through many phases and stages as it became established. 1927 it was designated a vocational school and added a new West Wing two years later that contain shops and an auditorium on the bottom floor and two gyms. In the 1920s and 30s it was a boys’ world as far as sports were concerned. Girls playing sports was frowned upon. Students had to wear proper dress. Male students wore shirts, slacks, and ties, and you tipped your fedora when you pass a girl who was never dressed in trousers but always skirt and blouse. Black-and-white was the standard color for men and women By 1947, PCVS was still the city’s only public high school. It had 1230 students, exceeding the capacity by 28% . To help alleviate this overcrowding, Kenner high school opened in 1952 and Adam Scott in 1959. In the 1950s admission to University required or 75% grade 13 average and first class honors. The school suggested daily homework in great 13 should be three hours, one and a half for grade niners, and “nothing should interfere with it.” A school manual listed five causes for failure: irregular attendance, lack of concentration, too much time in other activities, lack of ambition to excel (laziness) and lack of systematic method of study. Students were required to be neat, tidy, punctual, obedient, respectful, and courteous. There was to be no smoking on the way to and from school, and students were to move to class in single file, and no student was exempt from physical fitness School is been under the demolition gun several times. In 1964 the board was planning to get rid of it to sell to the city for a City Hall Annex. The public uproar was so loud the Board of Education built a new gym, although some had argued for cafeteria but the board said there were enough downtown restaurants for the students and the teachers. When Mortlock construction was building the new gym in 1965, they found for human skeletons in decaying caskets laid between the land of the armoury and PCVS. In another Save the PCVS campaign led by future MP Peter Adams, and entire board election was based on the issue, and the pro PCVS group formed the next Board of Education. By 1968 a cafeteria library were built for $200,000. Today the school focuses on arts program and needless to say none of the old rules exist.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 23:35:20 +0000