In a neighborhood of Vancouver, a small antique schoolhouse that had looked over Maple Avenue since 1912 became slated for demolition.
But it turned out that the Squamish Nation needed a schoolhouse, so they and the Vancouver School Board hatched a plan.
They lifted it from it’s plot in Kitsilano and floated it using a barge—in its entirety—to the North Shore where it will head to the Capilano Reserve.
The Nation will use it to teach children their indigenous language.
The story was a grand coincidence, as Glyn Lewis, who works with an organization called Renewal Home Development that was pushing for the schoolhouse to be repurposed rather than torn down, just happened to be chatting with an official from the Squamish nation in charge of capital projects.
The official, Bob Sokol, said the nation was in serious need of new infrastructure for community services and education.
“I said, ‘Well, Bob, would you be interested in saving, relocating, and repurchasing this little yellow schoolhouse from Henry Hudson Elementary? And Bob got really excited about the idea,” Lewis told CBC News.
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Heritage Vancouver details that the yellow schoolhouse on Maple Ave. was originally a trade school for kids, where they could learn skills like metalworking and carpentry.
“We confirmed that it’s in good condition. It’s 110 years old, but it’s got beautiful, first-growth beams in it, and a lot of the systems were upgraded in the last 15 years,” Lewis said. “It would have been a shame [to demolish it].”
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To avoid traffic, Nickel Bros. home relocation arrived with a serious flatbed at 10:00 pm. After loading up the house they moved at a crawl down to a dock near Kitsilano Beach where they arrived at 4:00 am in time to catch a high tide that took them north of Stanley Park, under the Lions Gate Bridge, and to North Shore Thursday evening.
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