On May 10th, 2003 my father and brother took a trip out to the corner to have a look inside Alma School - the roof was starting to cave in and I wanted to take a few photos.
In the late 1970's the Alma Women's Institute took possession of the school and fixed it up. They put up a white fence and painted the schoolhouse. In the summer of 1981 the Women's Institute hired students through a Government Summer works program to paint the school. I recall Edna Dunbar telling Mom she'd been away from Alma all day and when she came home later that day and turned onto the Centerline Road her heart skipped a beat when she saw a pink schoolhouse - that was the primer - in the end it was red with white trim. I took the photo below in the winter of 1982-1983.
In the late 1980's the Alma Women's Institute sold the school to Bobby Gordon for a storage building. In 2007 the ruins of the fallen down school were removed when the intersection of Centerline Road and the Western road was re-worked.
Below are photos from inside the school. You can see three layers of wall covering. Originally lathe and plaster, then diagonal boards and wainscoting with tar paper below and likely in the late 1960's cheap wall paneling.
Below: the wood ceiling and wall are crumbling.
Below: Step up to platform where the teacher had her desk.
Below: frame where the chalkboard use to be.
Above: Kerras and Wilbert Jeffery
Above: indoor toilets with open tank below!!
Above: the northwest side of the school - when I was a kid the coal shed was just to the right.
Above: view of the back of Rennie's Store from the schoolhouse.
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