Last chance to try and snag a brick or two before the 1911 Henry Hudson Elementary School in Kitsilano is just a distant memory. Demolition of the red brick building started Thursday.
The Namesake:
Since it’s out with the old, I’m wondering if a name change was considered for the new school? Henry Hudson, it turns out, was a 17th century English navigator and explorer who never visited Vancouver. He disappeared after a mutiny in 1611 and was presumed dead. Apart from his total lack of connection to the city—the closest he came to Vancouver was Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada, roughly 4,700 km away—he’s not exactly the kind of role model I’d want for my kids.
According to Britannica: “As a commander, Hudson was more headstrong than courageous. He violated his agreement with the Dutch and failed to suppress the 1611 mutiny. He played favourites and let morale suffer.”
Rifle champions:
I couldn’t find out much about the history of Henry Hudson Elementary. Vancouver is Awesome wrote up an article in June 2012 when the school was celebrating its centennial. It said that during the First World War, Henry Hudson students earned the title of city rifle champions (1915 and 1916). The team included Nat Bailey who would go on to baseball and White Spot, and Hugh Matthews, the son of Vancouver’s first archivist Major Matthews.
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Babes in the Woods:
Derek and David D’Alton, the two little boys who were murdered in Stanley Park in the 1940s and identified as the Babes in the Woods in February 2022, attended Henry Hudson Elementary in the mid 1940s.
The Little Yellow School House:
Some of you will remember the little yellow school house that sat beside the soon-to-gone school building. It was built in 1912 as a Manual Training School. Google tells me that was a school that focussed on training in trades like carpentry and metal work.
Instead of being tossed in the landfill to make way for a new school, it is now part of the Chief Joe Mathias Centre on North Vancouver’s Capilano Road where children learn the Squamish Nation’s language Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim.
If you went to Henry Hudson Elementary I’d love to hear your stories!
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