Greensville school, older than Canada, to be torn down after 169 years
School was built in 1848 and will be rebuilt on the same site in time for fall 2018
The original Greensville schoolhouse went up in 1848, with no running water, no toilets and one giant bell that rang out across the rural landscape to mark the start of classes.
Everyone in earshot of that bell, which rang out to about a kilometre away, would come to school – even grown men in the seasons their farms didn't need their full attention.
On Tuesday, that bell sat on a folding table in the school's gym, alongside photographs and memorabilia of the oldest school in the Hamilton-Wentworth school district.
Many eras of Greensville Grizzlies, as the students were known, came out on Tuesday for an open house to commemorate the school's 169-year history. Teachers walked the hallways they'd walked for years, perhaps for the last time.
The school is slated to be torn down this year, with a new Greensville school built in its place. The current students, about 175 of them this year, will go temporarily to Spencer Valley School, until next fall, when the two schools will be back at the new Greensville campus.
"Even though it's just a building, there's a lot of history there," said Jane Galliver-Fortune, whose daughter is in Grade 1. "I don't know why I get so choked up talking about it. With Canada turning 150 – it was around before Canada was Canada."
'Students would catch rides on people's sleighs'
The shape of the old school is still evident, despite the brick additions that have joined it throughout the decades. They once wanted to torch the school in the 1950s and rebuild, but ran out of money.
Some of those original bricks will feature in the new school.
Though now, the Greensville school feels just a short distance from Dundas, in the old days it was its own distinct area with a cannery, a hotel, a carpet-making factory.
A girl from Dundas even boarded in Greensville during the week, saving herself the "long trek" to and from the school, said Rob Flosman, a history teacher at Waterdown High School. Flosman, along with students, put together some historical displays for an open house on Tuesday.
"It's just amazing how Greensville (then) is totally different than today," Flosman said. "Teachers used the rod. Students would catch rides on people's sleighs. It's a different world."
'I can see cows'
On Tuesday, Bruce Picken came to say goodbye to Greensville, where he once went from grades 3 to 8 in 1958 through 1964.
Having moved near to the school from the more urban east-central neighbourhoods of Hamilton, Picken said he sat down in class that first day, looked out the window and realized with a start:
"I can see cows."
Sisters who came to the school for the open house were taking pictures with their mom in front of the old schoolhouse.
"It's upsetting," said Breanna Warren-Snowball, in Grade 5, about the school closing.
Her sister, Greylind, in Grade 2, said it's a bit happy and a bit sad to say goodbye to the old school in favour of a new one.
"The school has been here a long time," she said.
