School History and Archives

Archives

About SMS Archives
St. Margaret's School Archives acquires and preserves records and artifacts relating to the history of the school. The holdings include records of the school and its founders, staff and student memorabilia, scrapbooks, photographs, newspaper clippings, uniform items, trophies, and a complete set of the school yearbook, the Cardinal (1911-present).

Hours of Operation
The SMS Archives is open by appointment only during the school year (September to June).

Contact Us
Email: archive@stmarg.ca

History

Saint Margaret’s School was founded in 1908 by two English sisters, Edith and Isabel Fenwick, who were soon joined by their friend Margaret Barton. The School started in a small house at 810 Cook Street. With increasing enrolment it moved across the street to a larger house at 813 Cook Street and soon acquired the neighbouring house at 819 Cook Street for additional classroom space. By 1911 plans were underway for a new school and boarding house to accommodate the eighty pupils, including ten boarders, and five live-in teachers.

Tragedy struck on April 10, 1911 when the Fenwick sisters were drowned in the capsizing of the SS Iroquois as it left Sidney on route to Salt Spring Island. Margaret Barton, who was accompanying them, was found unconscious with one hand bound to the gunwale of a capsized lifeboat. Students, years later, would recall Margaret Barton’s scarred hands from steam pipe burns.

Parents persuaded Miss Barton to take over the school as Headmistress once she had recovered. She accepted and took on the task of overseeing the construction of the new school at Fort and Fern Streets. Mr. Francis Rattenbury, the noted architect who designed the Parliament Buildings in Victoria, designed the initial buildings. The move to the new school buildings occurred over Easter weekend 1912, one year after the Iroquois disaster.

Many changes and developments took place over the years and in 1928 SMS amalgamated with St. George’s School for Girls. By the late 1960s, with aging buildings and the prospect of substantial repair, the present Lake Hill area property was purchased and the Fort Street campus was sold. The entire School participated in a ten-mile walkathon from the Fort Street School to the Lucas Avenue site in May 1970 in anticipation of the move. In September 1970 the new school opened at 1080 Lucas Avenue.