page_title: High School of Montreal
section_title: Buildings
hierarchical_section_title: High School of Montreal / Buildings
caption_attribution_description: F.A.C.E. School (in English, Fine Arts Core Education and in French, Formation Artistique au Coeur de l'Éducation) is a bilingual pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, elementary and high school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is run jointly by the English Montreal School Board and the Commission Scolaire de Montréal (CSDM). Built 1914-1924 for High School of Montreal (closed 1979). Photo by uploader.
context_page_description: The High School of Montreal was an English-language high school founded in 1843, serving Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the area eventually known as the Golden Square Mile. It was less formally known as Montreal High School and from 1853 to 1870 was called the High School of McGill College, or the High School Division.
  Founded as a school for boys only, girls were first admitted in 1875, although to a separate division called the High School for Girls, and a new building shared by both was opened in 1878. In its last century the school took children from the first to the twelfth grades. In 1915, after occupying several different sites, the school moved into a new neoclassical building on University Street, near the campus of McGill University. Girls and boys were taught in separate wings of the building and were also apart for school sports, but came together for some activities. The two divisions were united into a single school in 1965.
  The school closed in June 1979, largely as the result of a decline in the English-speaking population. Soon after, the mostly French-speaking F.A.C.E. School moved into its empty premises, to be joined by the MIND High School on the third floor.
context_section_description: The school's first home was Bingham House, a former vice-regal residence at the corner of Notre Dame and St Denis Streets. In 1845 a new school building was begun in La Gauchetière Street, with an entrance on Belmont Street, later to become the McGill Normal School, with its cornerstone being laid by Lord Metcalfe, the Governor General, and in 1846 the High School moved into it. The new school building, designed by John Ostell, was described as "in the Domestic approaching to Tudor style of architecture" and was sixty yards by nineteen, not counting a portico which projected thirteen feet, with a Lecture and Examination Hall nineteen yards square. Shortly afterwards, the Royal Grammar School joined the High School of Montreal there, following the death of its Master.
  In 1863 the school moved again, to a new building later known as the Fraser Library and Institute, and in 1870 it acquired and occupied the Burnside Hall, which had been built in the 1850s to serve as the arts building of McGill College. In 1878, to bring the boys' and girls' schools together under the same roof, came a new building on Metcalfe Street, but the Burnside Hall was not sold until 1883. The new Metcalfe Street building also fronted onto Peel Street.
  In 1890, the school's building on Peel and Metcalfe Streets burned down, probably a case of arson, but the cause was never determined. A new school on the same site was opened in 1892. In the meantime, classes were divided between schools in Metcalfe Street and Berthelet Street and the Fraser Institute. The new building on Peel Street had thirty-two classrooms, those in the south wing for girls and in the north wing for boys. The corridors both led to an administrative heart at the centre, with gates topped by iron spikes to separate girls and boys. The site at 1455 Peel Street was later occupied by the Mount Royal Hotel, which in the 1980s was converted into the present-day Les Cours Mont-Royal.
  In 1911, with the school continuing to expand, a site for a new building was acquired, and in 1914 construction began of the school's final home, at 3449 University Street. The school was able to move in during September 1915. Built in a neoclassical Beaux-Arts architectural style, used for many public buildings at the time, but unusual for schools in Montreal, the new school was designed by William Sutherland Maxwell and his brother Edward Maxwell, leading Canadian architects who were also responsible for the nearby Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Both were former pupils of the school. Finally completed in 1924, the building is shaped like the letter H and was originally planned to provide wings for boys and girls joined by a smaller central block, where shared activities were to take place. The many flourishes include four caryatids high above the main entrance and other decorative features, while the design of the staircases is believed to be unique, with separate double flights, one for up and one for down, which do not intersect. The auditorium was wood-panelled. The new building provided over sixty classrooms, on five floors, taking children all the way from first to twelfth grade.
  The school was the first in Montreal to have its own swimming pool, completed in 1924 in the basement of the new University Street building. There was also a shooting gallery, where sixteen people could shoot at targets 25 yards away, but at first it was used only by the boys, as was a room for sloyd. The library was common ground, but the physics and chemistry laboratories were in the boys' wing. Art was taught in separate rooms, and although the swimming pool was shared, girls and boys used it at different times. At first there was only one gymnasium, for boys, but soon the school's auditorium was converted into a girls' gym and a new auditorium was added behind the H-block. There were two sports rooms in the basement and two large recreational areas on the school's flat roof, each with views of the city and nearer views of each other.
caption: The University Street building, begun 1914
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