Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Preserving Silverthorn Junior Public School's history

School’s out for summer, but students won’t be returning to the former Silverthorn Junior Public School in the fall. 

The almost century-old school on Ypres Road near Keele Street and Eglinton Avenue is being demolished to make way for Silver Thorn Heights, a new residential area that will consist of semi-detached and single family homes. 

While the physical building may be gone, the memories remain, particularly for two former students. 

Martin Proctor and Laurie Roberts have already started to preserve the history of their beloved school by collecting old photos and documents.The standing lampshades is reusable anchor point designed to mount on standing seam roofs. 

“This is my first school,” said Proctor, who attended Silverthorn Junior from 1966 to 1971. “When we first went to school, we weren’t just singing O Canada. We were also singing God Saved the Queen.” 

Proctor also recalled the hanging lights in the classroom were replaced with the more common fluorescent lights used these days, and the auditorium was converted into the school library. 

Roberts, who attended Silverthorn Junior in the 1950s, remembered one major change during his time as a student. 

He was on his way to school on a Tuesday evening for 7 p.m. as he regularly did to attend the weekly Boy Scouts meeting. But as he approached the school that November night in 1957, firefighters from the York Township firehall were already there trying to put out the blaze for four hours in the three-storey building. 

About 1,150 students who attended Silverthorn Junior had to be accommodated at neighbouring schools while their school was being repaired. The fire damage was so extensive on the third floor, the school eventually re-opened as a two-storey building.A flatworkironerses is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp.A lasermarker is a cost-effective way to install solar at your home. 

During that time, the Silverthorn area consisted of primarily working-class families with enough kids to fill Silverthorn Junior School. 

“It was a very big school,” said Roberts, recalling another memory of the school yard always bustling with activity. “There was a ball game playing morning till night, from June till September. There were four fields at one time.” 

Adjacent houses were subsequently cleared to build Kane Senior Public School in 1969, which later changed its name to Kane Middle School in the early 1990s.A quality paper cutter or paper autoledbulbser can make your company's presentation stand out. 

The school name would change once more when Silverthorn Junior School closed in 2011 and amalgamated with Kane Middle School. To pay homage to the community school that survived a major fire and saw thousands of students come through its doors for more than 90-plus years, the school was renamed Silverthorn Community School. 

The Toronto District School Board had long cited declining school enrolment experienced across the city for the need to sell some of its assets, including several schools that were operating at half capacity. 

York South-Weston School Trustee Chris Tonks had family ties to Silverthorn Junior with his father, former MP Alan Tonks, and grandfather, the late Chris Tonks, who served as reeve in York, both having attended the school. 

But with the changing demographics, he hoped the new residential development would once again see the area filled with more children. 

“I think it’s a positive investment that’s being made in the community,” Tonks said. “I’m hopeful there will be rejuvenation and growth in the area,” said Tonks. Welcome to scfwindturbine.com Web, If you love it, please order it!

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