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March Township
S.S. No. 1 March
400 Goldridge Dr., Kanata
Built in 1886, the stone schoolhouse replaced an earlier log building constructed 30 years before. It was a public school until 1963. Decorative quoins, the wooden bell tower and portions of its original bargeboard distinguish the structure. Many immigrants who had arrived from France, Holland and Germany to help on the surrounding farms sent their children to this school to learn English. During lunch hours, students enjoyed swimming in what is now a water hole on the Kanata Golf Course, or went tobogganing on Ken Richardson's big hill. In 1985, Nancy Upper and Katherine Watson formed the Children's Art Centre which offered lessons in music, art and drama until 1994. The building is now a heritage site and meeting place owned by the City of Ottawa.
895 March Rd., Kanata
Dr. James Lacey's Kanata Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery medical offices now occupy this old school dating back to 1892. The stone schoolhouse is the lineal descendant of the first schoolhouse in March Township, erected in 1828 with stones drawn from the Richardson quarry. The school was a temporary Anglican church before St. John's at South March was built a decade later, and the venue for the annual township meetings from at least 1836-1850. It ceased to be a school in 1963. From 1983-2003, Ilona Murto trans-
formed the school into the Arteca Art Gallery. Inside, a pine blackboard remains intact with faint writing of a physiology lesson in chalk still visible. The owner and architects involved received an Ottawa Architectural Conservation Award in 2006 for the historical restoration.
2303 Dunrobin Rd., Dunrobin
By the 1860s, there were sufficient numbers of children to warrant a school in School Section No. 3. An 1881 register, with teacher Frances Boucher, lists 31 students with names still found in the Dunrobin area, including Boucher, Rae, Holbrook, Wilson and Neeley. A framed structure replaced the log school in 1885. The 1894 register included names such as Nesbitt, Weir, Younghusband, Kennedy, Scissons, and Richardson with teacher Thomas Cathcart. The little red schoolhouse ceased being a school in 1963, and is now a private residence owned by Inga Herbst.
R.C.S.S. No. 3 March
2355 2nd Line Rd., Dunrobin
R.C.S.S. No. 3 March was built in 1905 on the site where previously there had been a log structure. Ambrose Carroll, Ann O'Connell's grandfather, offered his land to build the new school on the condition it was to be returned to the Carroll farm in the event of the school closing. In 1965, when it did close, the building was converted into a home, and the land is still owned by his descendents Stuart Carroll, Irene Carroll-Cummings and Ann Carroll O'Connell. Former teachers include Mary Carroll, Dahlia Kennedy, Sister Inez Kennedy, Evelyn Murphy, Carmel Murphy, Mrs. O'Neill, Miss Prince, Frank Turner, Frank Matyes, Adele Muldoon, Peter Drohan and Rose Langlois.
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