The 92-year-old Mount Newton High School on Keating Cross Road in Central Saanich is being torn down.
When it opened in 1931, the school was heralded as a step forward in providing secondary school education in the Saanich Peninsula.
It was built at the same time as the old Mount Doug High School on Cedar Hill Road — now Cedar Hill Middle School.
The two schools were designed by London-born architect Hubert Savage and featured the latest British-made plumbing and hyloplate-branded chalkboards, which were tinted green and thought to be restful for the eyes, according to news reports at the time.
The 550-student school reached its capacity by the 1980s and was described as “aging and overcrowded” in an 1988 issue of the Times Colonist.
At one point, some of the students of Mount Newton — by then a middle school — were farmed out to Royal Oak Middle School and Stelly’s Secondary School for classes due to parent complaints of overcrowding.
When it first opened, students enjoyed going to school near fields of strawberries and broccoli and played grass hockey in what was then just a small gravel pit.
But over the years, Butler Congregate and Aggregate expanded its pit near the school grounds, taking over two out of the three playing fields by the 1990s.
The school closed in 1992 when the larger Bayside Middle School was built as a replacement.
At various points in its post-school life, it has acted as a school district resource centre, a volunteer centre for the Commonwealth Games, a church, a live music venue, and place for yard sales.
