Victoria School
House
The Victoria School House was built in 1904
as a replacement for a brick School House on the same site.
The brick building had been deemed unsafe. The School
House is situated on 1/2 acres of land, on the north east
corner of
lot 88, second concession of Ameliasburgh.
The school house was named for Victoria Church - now demolished
- that had been constructed in the year of Queen Victoria's
Jubilee. The Victoria School House was in use until
1966 when it was offered for sale to the Montgomery family
on whose property it stands.
From the 1830's until the 1960's more than
75 Sectional Schools were built to serve the students of Prince Edward
County. In 2003, the Montgomery family offered their Victoria School
House building to the Quinte Educational Museum and Archives to be used as the
new permanent home for it's extensive collection. "It seems like the right
thing for our family to do" said Mrs. Montgomery.
The Museum has successfully reached an agreement with the Municipality of the County of Prince Edward to move the school, woodshed and privy the 5.5km to the site of the Ameliasburgh Historical Museum where these 3 buildings will become a Museum within a Museum.
The Montgomery Family
There is a story to the Victoria
Schoolhouse. Mrs. Montgomery was a teacher there spending time with a local
boy, Harmon Montgomery. They later married and raised children on the farm
where the School House sits. Her husband, Harmon Montgomery, followed in his
father's footsteps and became involved with education. He sat on the Bay of Quinte
High School Board and was involved in planning for the new Prince Edward School
Board, serving on it for 17 years. Elected to the municipal council in what was
then the Township of Ameliasburgh, Mr. Montgomery also served as Warden of
Prince Edward County.
Mrs. Mongomery was a charter member of the
Board of the Quinte Educational Museum and Archives. To celebrate the 25th
anniversary of QEMA the "Save the Museum Committee" hopes to see the
schoolhouse moved up the hill and along the back roads to the site of the Ameliasburgh
Historical Museum. Thanks to the Montgomery family the Museum will finally have
a home.
You can help with this relocation project
by donation to QEMA so that the school building can be moved. Charitable
receipts will be issued for all donations.
Did you or someone in your family attend
the Victoria School House?
Would you share your memories and/or
memorabilia with us?
Our "Victoria School House
Historian", Mr. Dan Rainey, is collecting information and memorabilia for a series of
publications starting with the Victoria Schoolhouse. Your stories and photographs could be
included in this wonderful book. Please visit our forums or reach Dan by email at rainey@reach.net.
Or by regular mail at:
Victoria School House History
c/o Mr. Dan Rainey
rainey@reach.net
OUR SCHOOL SONG
A song to celebrate the moving of the Victoria Schoolhouse and the rescue of the museum. It just evolved from a bit of idle musing. Perhaps the inspiration came from The County’s own Frere Brothers’ technique of putting locally-relevant lyrics to well-known tunes.
To the tune of “My Darling Clementine”
Common sense has, caused a crisis
For our museum, so profound
Made it homeless, seeking new space
But for five years none was found.
Priceless photos, rarest papers,
Irreplaceable artifacts,
Would be lost and gone forever
If on them we’d turned our backs.
Now a timely, kind donation
By the clan Montgomery,
Has turned that hopeless situation
To a fading memory.
On a corner, in The County,
Fighting back the sands of time,
Stands a schoolhouse, with a tool house
And a privy out behind.
Oh! My goodness, it’s Adelaide Hoodless,
Calling down from up on high,
“What’s the object, of this project,
Getting funds from W.I.?”
Soon that schoolhouse, will be moved out
And restored for all to see,
How we got our education
In the last two centuries.
In preserving this museum
Many groups have played a part,
So we thank its benefactors
From the bottom of our hearts.
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