By Lawrence A. Crichin in The Way It Was (1986)
The Durand Street School had a development that somewhat paralleled that of the Lochiel Street School, although on a smaller scale. Both schools started as one room housed in a private building or home, and both had two schools on the same site.
The Durand Street School has been known by a number of names such as a Juvenile School, and North Ward School before it became officially the Durand Street School. Again, it went through another name change when it was annexed to the London Road School in 1960 and became known as the London Road-Durand Street School until its demolition in 1975. It, however, continued to be called the Durand Street School by the community and staff.
On December 6, 1867, the Board recommended that a Juvenile School be set up in the North Ward and that a portion of Mr. Jones’ house on London Road be rented at a dollar a month. In the end, the school started in Mr. Brown’s house. The exact location of these homes is not known. On November 8, 1868, the school was moved to a small cottage owned by Mr. Rageau for six months at $2.50 a month.
It would seem that a Miss McDairmid was placed in charge of the North Ward School. Nothing more is known of the teacher or that one-room school. It would be unfair not to mention that in a brief history of the Sarnia Public Schools written about 1910 and attached to the minutes of that year states “In January 1868 a Juvenile School was opened in a room rented from Mr. Jones on London Road and Miss Isabella Mudie was in charge.” This same information is to be found in the monograph published for “Sarnia Old Home Week – July 18-25, 1925.”It is expected that the latter is merely a copy from that 1910 history. It is possible that the school started briefly in the Jones’ home under Miss Mudie but for unknown circumstances it was very shortly moved to the Brown home with Miss McDairmid in charge. Nothing in the Board minutes gives any hint of this.
At the Board meeting of May 21, 1869, the Management Committee recommended the purchase of Lot 42 on Durand Street of nearly one-half acre for $100, and Lot C on Durand Street for $75.Instructions were given to draw up plans for a two-room school in the North Ward. Some sources will suggest that this was a one-room school, however, the exact wording of the Board minutes stated “the Committee was instructed to get a plan for the North Ward School for two departments.” Miss Maron Black, principal of Durand School for some 23 years, states that she was quite sure it was a two-room school. Old pictures indicate that the first Wellington Street School and the Russell Street School were built along the same lines, and Durand and Wellington were possibly very similar.
The north section of the city was experiencing considerable growth. This was some 20 years before the St. Clair Tunnel was built and Point Edward was a flourishing centre with many trains crossing the St. Clair River by ferry. Imperial Oil would not come into existence until 1897. On June 13, 1869, the tender of Mr. William Ireland of $825 was accepted to build a two room school. This was the lowest tender. This acceptance also included building a similar school at the same place, known as the Wellington Street School.
It is not known for sure who any of the first teachers were, however, it is believed that Miss Gratia Clark was one, of the first staff as the Board minutes record receiving her resignation May 3, 1872 and on July 5, 1872, a Miss Jessie L. Clark was appointed to fill her position.
In 1880, the water in the school well went bad and, at the June 4th meeting, it was recommended that water be piped from the Water Works. On May 5, 1882, lot 11 on Durand Street adjoining the school was purchased from a Mrs. Ferguson.
By the early 1900s, the old Durand School was in dire need of major repairs. At the July 24, 1903 Board meeting, the Management Committee recommended that a four-room school be built on the Durand grounds with the second floor left unfinished for the present. At the August 19th meeting, it was recommended that the old school be demolished and the Methodist Sunday School room on Parker Street be rented for classes at $5,00 per week. No overall contractor was engaged to build the new school; rather, nine different tenders were accepted to handle specific phases of the construction. Their total cost amounted to $6,793.00. A separate contract was granted to Frank Goodison on November 24, 1903 to install a low-pressure steam boiler for $1,215.00.
Thus the old Durand Street School passed into history with remarkably little recorded about the activities within its walls over its life of some thirty years.
The new Durand School was opened February 1, 1904 and it is presumed that classes in the two classrooms began at that time. The first staff was likely Miss White and Miss Anderson, although this is not a certainty. Miss Campbell was moved to the Wellington Street School in September 1904 from Durand.
At the October 7, 1904 meeting, the Board moved to have the upper floor completed. At the November 4th meeting, the tender of G.A. Proctor of $1,625 for the completion was accepted. The overall cost, including furnishings, was $2,312.00.
The Durand School was a two-story, four classroom structure with a very low ceiling basement. The exterior was clad with pinkish-buff brick. The upper rooms were reached by stairwells at the north end of the building. The classrooms had high ceilings with five narrow windows along one wall. In later years, the floors and ceilings were finished with tile, which resulted in terrible acoustics.
Because of the extreme crowding in the North Ward School, the Board recommended on February 2, 1905 that the third room he opened as soon as a teacher could be found. Apparently, a critical teacher shortage was being experienced in the area. Records would suggest that this was due, in part, to the very low salaries in Sarnia in comparison with other centres. On March 3, Miss Effie Polley was engaged for the position. By December 1906, however, Durand School was reduced to two classrooms due to what the Board considered the high costs of operations. The quality of the product purchased generally compares very favourably with the price one pays. The two rooms continued under Miss Nellie Campbell and Miss Mary McIntyre. By December 4, 1908, the four classrooms were in operation as the staff of the school was recorded in the Board minutes as follows: Miss Nellie Campbell, principal, third book, Miss McLean second book, part two, Miss Wilson second book, and Miss Brown first book. Apparently, the students in the fourth book, grades VII and VIII were accommodated at the George Street School.
It is interesting to note that this school, which has traditionally had an all- female staff, apparently had a male teacher around 1910 as the Board, on October 14, 1910, received a petition asking that Mr. John McKellar be retained as a teacher at Durand.
It is difficult to ascertain the exact title of the head teacher of the Durand School. It is certain that the students and parents regarded the senior teacher as the principal and even the Board minutes speak loosely, from time, to time of the head teacher as principal. However, it is known for other board minutes that all the smaller schools were under a supervising principal who was located in one of the two larger schools. In March 1911, the minutes record that Miss Laura Clark was made vice-principal of Durand and no one in the building was recognized, at least officially, as principal. By the 1930s, this policy seems to have been changed again as Miss Maud Coke was appointed principal of Durand in September, 1931. The office of principal became open for September 1937 and both JD VanHorne and Miss Maron Black applied for it. At the July 8, 1937 Board meeting the application of Miss Black was acccepted, a position she held until her retirement June 1960.
By the end of World War II, Durand was showing its age and it was evident that something had to be done with its state of disrepair. At the June 1945 meeting, the Lalonde tender of $15,429.75 to renovate the school was excepted. In August, arrangements were made to have staggered classes at the London Road School just across the street until the renovations were completed. It must be said that a very fine job was done when the age of the building, the scarcity of materials, and the thinking that prevailed at that time were taken into consideration. It must be remembered that this was a time when one of Sarnia’s long-term mayors said that all that was necessary for good education results were a lean-to, a blackboard, and a piece of chalk in the hands of a good teacher. That could well be true, but that same mayor was living in anything but a one-room cabin north of Exmouth Street on its large tract of land.
With the retirement of Maron Black in June 1960, the Board moved to combine Durand and London Road Schools into one unit under one principal at the London Road building. From that point, the school was known as the London Road-Durand Street and the Durand School cease to have a separate existence.
The last staff of an independent Durand School was Miss Maron Black, principal; Mrs. Helen Chown; Mrs. Isobell Watcher, and Miss Carolyn Russell.
It is only fitting to include here a brief overview of the life of Maron Black, the one person most associated with the Durand Street School. She was born in Brigden on June 28, 1895. Her education was received at the Brigden Public and Continuation School to the end of grade X, then continued at the old Sarnia Collegiate at the London Normal School during the 1916/17 session. In September 1917, she joined the Russell Street School staff under the supervision of Miss Grace Wightman. Her salary was $660.
Maron must have received an excellent evaluation from the Normal School as it was the practice of the Sarnia Board to hire only experienced teachers with a few exceptions up to the end of World War II.
The following year found her in the primary division of the Lochiel Street School where she remained until 1937. That year she was the successful applicant for the principalship of the Durand Street School to succeed Miss Maud Coke.
During her forty-one years in the primary division of Sarnia’s schools, many hundreds of little children were fortunate in launching their educational career under the guidance of this very talented teacher. It must be remembered that it is not until September 1944 that this city set up kindergarten- primary classes, thus the Primer or Grade 1 teacher was the child’s very important first contact.
She recalled her early years of supervision under John Johnston. She found him to be a very fine man but extremely rigid; everything was business, from when he entered to when he left the room. On the other hand, Mr. Gilbert was a very friendly person and gave a great deal of credit for good work. Mr. Johnston set all the examinations for the primary division while Mr. Gilbert set those of the upper grades. The children had to pass these examinations each year before they could move on to the next grade.
She firmly believed that little children should be allowed to carry on some quiet conversation in the classroom, as she felt that it was only natural to people of all ages. She can recall being challenged on this issue once by an inspector and she replied that she didn’t intend being responsible for some child ending up in an institution by restricting them so rigidly.
In June 1960, Miss Black decided to retire. This marked the end of independent principals in the Durand School. She has continued to live in Sarnia and has enjoyed a long retirement among her many friends and admirers. Miss Black died January 16, 1986 and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, age 90.
Although the Durand School functioned independently, it was always closely associated with a larger school which received its pupils for the senior grades; from 1922 on, that was the London Road School. After kindergarten classes were established in 1944, the beginners began at the London Road School and then attended Durand for grades I and II, and returned to the London Road School for the rest of their elementary education. This tended to cause people to associate their elementary education with London Road because of the short period they spent at the junior school.
After 1960, Durand continued to function pretty much as in the past although they now turned to the principal in the senior school for direction. Later, they attended staff meetings at London Road, brought their children over to use the gymnasium located in the London Road attic and when the resource centre was established, came over to use it.
In 1974, the Board decided to replace both the Durand and London Road structures with a modern school on the London Road campus immediately south of Durand Street. On the completion of the new school, the Durand Street School was razed. On a motion from Robert George and Rev. G Young at the June 28, 1976 meeting, the tender of R. Lumley Demolition of $2,835 was acccepted, and the grounds were levelled to become part of the London Road campus in the long-needed beautiful parks and playground complex for that part of the city.
The last teachers to serve in the Durand building in January 1976 were Mrs. Ruth McClean (sic), Joan Cook, Mrs. Sharon hrynyk, and Mrs. Mary-Lou Parizeau. The new school was not ready for the teachers to move into until January.
Highlights:
Jan. 3, 1868- the opening of the first North Ward classroom 1869/70- the opening of the first Durand Street School Feb. 1, 1904- the opening of the second Durand Street School
July, 1919- fire escapes were placed on the Durand & Wellington St. Schools. Cost: $800
July, 1937- Mrs. Maron Black was appointed principal of Durand
July, 1945- the tender of Lalonde was accepted to renovate the school
Mar.21, 1960- Maron Black submitted her letter of retirement
May 24, 1960- the Board moved to annex Durand Street to the London Road School
Jan, 1976- the last classes were held in Durand
June 28, 1976- Durand School was demolished
Principals
Like all the small schools dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries, it is very difficult to get a clear picture of this office due to the scarceness of comments in the Board minutes and the vagueness of such when they appeared. The term was often used merely to designate the teacher who was in charge, although no such official recognition was made nor was one paid at such a salary until probably in the 1920s.
Miss Nellie Campbell- February 1904 and 1908, vice-principal
Miss Laura Clark- 1911
Miss Minnie Faulds 1917-1931, vice-principal
Miss Maud Coke 1931-1937
Miss Maron Black 1937-1960
London Road-Durand Street School
D. MacIntyre, B.A., M.Ed. 1960-1964
Morley MacGregor, B.A., 1964-1970
James McArthur, B.A., 1970-1971 Lawrence Crich, B.A., M.Ed., Psy. 1971-1973
Melville Davis, B.A. 1973-1976