Dust filled the air, and a somber feeling was noted, as heavy machinery began the job of demolishing the Cultural Centre, also known as the “Old Brick School,” on Friday morning.
The school’s roots go back to 1929, with the building being officially dedicated in 1930, with countless students attending the building over the next few decades. The building was the community’s first high school, and served as a home for a variety of groups, such as Les Blés d’Or and many other French community organizations.
In the spring of 1981, not long after the building had been deemed a historical site, the French association of St. Paul would take the first steps to renovate the building, which was known as the Cultural Centre by that time.
The group had just reached the halfway point of its fundraising initiatives for the renovations when a devastating fire would rip through the building.
A front-page story from the March 18, 1981 issue of the St. Paul Journal described the fire.
“The alarm was sounded Tuesday morning at 7:30 p.m. by an attendant from the Turbo gas station across the road, marshaling the St. Paul Fire Brigade met at the outset by dense clouds of black smoke swirling from the roof and driven by north easterly winds.”
The building was gutted from the inside, “by a slowly spreading, uncontrollable fire.”
The source of the fire appeared to come from the top of the northeast corner of the building, and smoke hindered efforts made by the fire fighters, but the cause, according to the article, was unknown.
“Attempts were made to get inside by opening the west end entrance, but again the billowing dark smoke and the dangerous hazard created prevented them from getting inside and at the upper levels where intense heat also drove them away,” recalls the news article.
After the fire, heavy machinery was brought in to knock down the weakening structure, and on Friday morning a very similar scene began unfolding in the exact same location. But unlike the story in 1981, Friday’s demolition will mark the end of an era for the main street building, and this time, there will be no follow-up stories written of a building being reconstructed.
After the fire in 1981, stories were published, recalling memories of time spent within the school’s walls, attending and teaching classes. Although those memories are fewer now, it was clear on Friday, as a handful of residents stopped by to take in the scene, that those memories do continue to exist.
“For me, it is more the attachment to the original building,” said Yollande Kitt, after watching the building get partially knocked down. Although the building demolished on Friday was not the original school, it still represented the memories she carries.
“My mother went to school in the old building. The Sisters of Assumption were some of the teachers. I went to grade school there (in the old building),” said Kitt, adding, there were lots of memories made in that building.
She recalled how it was a “sad time” when the original school burnt down, and it was also disappointing to see the building get knocked down last week.
“It would be nice to save our older structures in St. Paul, but not always practical,” she noted.
According to the East Central Francophone Education Region, work will now be done on the exterior of the newer portion of the building, the old École du Sommet. The francophone school board is housed in the newer portion, along with the French association, a daycare, the St. Paul Gymnastics Club, and a variety of other groups that regularly use the gymnasium and other space.
And the space where the Cultural Centre stood for so many years will now be left to settle once the rubble is cleared away.
