St. John’s High School is a public high school in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The school is located in the
North End of the city and is in the Winnipeg School Division.
Founding
St. John’s started in 1909 at
Luxton School
The Winnipeg School Division is a school division in Winnipeg, Manitoba. With 78 schools, it is the largest of six public school divisions in Winnipeg, as well as the largest and oldest school division in Manitoba.
Its schools collectively tea ...
, on the second floor. That first year there were 89 students, and 4 teachers. Mr. Campbell was principal. Orange and brown became the school colours. In 1912, with the completion of the building at Machray and Salter, the school moved to its present location.
[The Torch 1967. St. John’s High Yearbook. Winnipeg, 1967]
Designed by Winnipeg school architect J. B. Mitchell and built between 1910 and 1912, St. John's Technical High School opened for classes in 1912.
Winnipeg Free Press
The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...
, Saturday, September 7, 1912 Its twin,
Kelvin Technical High School, opened around the same time for students from the southern part of the city. With exteriors of Tyndall stone and red brick, the interior floor plans for the two schools were identical.
The basement housed rooms for “technical” instruction in machining, woodworking, electrical work, mechanical drawing, and plumbing; dressing rooms for the gymnasium; the boiler room; four toilets; and two offices for teachers.
History
*1914, Many of the students and staff enlisted in fighting corps in World War I. A plaque at the school commemorates those who fought and died.
*1925, The first Student Government in Canada was organized at St. John’s by Mr. Reeve, the principal.
*1926, The Torch, the school’s first yearbook appeared, under the guidance of Mr. G. Snyder. This was the year that St. John’s was converted into a Senior High School.
*1935, “Jerusalem” was chosen as the school song.
*1939, Cadet corps, Red Cross, and War Committees were organized at St. John’s at the outbreak of World War II.
*1945, A system of bars and awards was started.
*1948, St. John’s, at the Inter-High Track and Field Meet, won the highest number of points.
*1952, With the opening of
Tec Voc High School, St. John’s changed almost completely to matriculation.
*1955, St. John’s won three of five awards given by Winnipeg High Schools.
*1957, The tower was pulled down.
*1959, This was a banner year in athletics, the Varsity team winning the City Basketball Championship, and the boys scoring the highest point totals in the Inter-High Track and Field Meet.
*1961, The Junior Highs became part of the school, ending St. John’s career as a Senior High School only.
*1964, The completion of a second addition in September provided new facilities, like the French lab.
*1967, With the demolition of the old building, St. John’s was no longer the oldest school in Winnipeg.
[The Torch 1967. St. John’s High Yearbook. Winnipeg, 1967]
Legacy
To celebrate the school's hundredth anniversary in 2009–2010, the 100th Reunion Committee left a legacy to honour the past, present and future alumni of St. John's High School.
[Gourluck, Russ. The Mosaic Village, An Illustrated History of Winnipeg’s North End. Great Plains Publications, Winnipeg, 2010] The alumni wall display is located in the library and junior gym hallway. Proceeds were used to complete the wall, and profits were made available for school programs.
Alumni
*
Ernie Ahoff, football guard
*
Burton Cummings
Burton Lorne Cummings (born December 31, 1947) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for leading The Guess Who during that band's most successful period from 1965 to 1975, and for a lengthy solo career.
Cummings has ...
, singer and songwriter
*
Ed Evanko, actor and singer
*
Harry Freedman, composer
*
Jack Gallagher, oilman and head of
Dome Petroleum
*
Erving Goffman
Erving Goffman (11 June 1922 – 19 November 1982) was a Canadian-born sociology, sociologist, Social psychology (sociology), social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth ...
, sociologist
*
Monty Hall, television and radio personality
*
S. I. Hayakawa
Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (July 18, 1906 – February 27, 1992) was a Canadian-born American academic and politician of Japanese ancestry. A professor of English, he served as president of San Francisco State University and then as U.S. Senator fro ...
, politician and university administrator
*
John Hirsch, theatre director
*
Ken Kostick
Ken Kostick (1 June 1953 – 21 April 2011)
CBC News. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
, chef and television and radio personality
Morley Meredith*
Norman Mittelmann
Norman Mittelmann (25 May 1932 – 17 March 2019) was a Canadian operatic baritone who had an active international opera career from the 1950s through the 1990s. A winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Mittelmann performed ...
, opera singer
*
John Paskievich
John Paskievich (born 1947) is a Canadian documentary photographer and filmmaker from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Born to Ukrainian parents in a displaced persons camp in Austria after World War II, Paskievich immigrated to Canada as a child with his fam ...
*
Bert Pearl
*
Arnold Spohr
Arnold Theodore Spohr, (December 23, 1923 – April 12, 2010) was a Canadian ballet dancer, choreographer, and artistic director.
Spohr was born in Rhein, Saskatchewan. From 1945 to 1954, he danced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and was the arti ...
*
Louis Slotin
*
David Steinberg
*
Chris Walby
Chris Walby (born October 23, 1956) is a retired Canadian Football League player who played the offensive tackle position almost exclusively with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He won three Grey Cups with the Bombers in 72nd Grey Cup, 1984, 76th Gr ...
*
Adele Wiseman
*
Abe Yanofsky
*
Avrom Yanovsky
Avrom Yanovsky (April 3, 1911 – May 22, 1979) was a Canadian graphic artist and editorial cartoonist, whose work appeared in a variety of leftist publications. He was known professionally as Avrom, though some of his work was also signed Armand, ...
Sources and external links
St. John's High School website: 100 Year Anniversary page* "Torch" - St Johns High School Yearbooks 1943 - 45
Manitoba Historical Society
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John's High School (Winnipeg)
High schools in Winnipeg
Educational institutions established in 1909
1909 establishments in Manitoba