Saved from demolition, 111-year-old Vancouver schoolhouse sails to new home

A brightyellow schoolhouse in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood has been saved from demolition by the Squamish Nation, which moved the entire building to its new homeby barge.

The old Henry Hudson building at the corner of Cornwall Avenue and Maple Street was going to be knocked down to make way for a new elementary school, but the nation stepped forward to preserve and relocate itso it can be used as a school atXwemelch'stn, or the Capilano Reserve.

"I'm relieved.I'm excited," said Glyn Lewis with Renewal Home Development, who pushed for months to have the school repurposed and relocated to another community.

"We're proving with this little yellow schoolhouse there are more responsible, sustainable pathways to removing a building. We shouldn't just be bulldozing everything because it's the easy thing to do."

WATCH | Century-old schoolhouse takes boat to new home

Vancouver schoolhouse moved to a new home via barge

10 months ago

Duration 1:05

The Henry Hudson Elementary school building was located in the Kitsilano neighbourhood for over a century. Now, it's being moved to the Squamish Nation reserve on the North Shore.

Lewis said the schoolhouse project is a victory for the community of people pushing developers, construction companies and other organizations to favourmore sustainable building practices, instead of what he described as the"demolition-first paradigm" in a growing city desperate for quick development.

"I generally support the densification of the region, and I understand why we're doing that. The challenge isthat the process to densify our region is unbelievably wasteful," said Lewis.

In a statement, the Squamish Nation said that the building would help meet the nation's "urgent infrastructure needs."

"The building will be modernized and repurposed by the Nation as a centre for early childhood education and will teach Skwxwu7mesh young ones Skwxwu7mesh snchim(Squamish language)," it said.

Schoolhouse heads to North Vancouver by barge

On Tuesday at 10 p.m., a team with Nickel Bros. house moversputthe entire schoolhouse onto a trailer. Its journey saw it crawl a few blocks west to Kitsilano Beach over the following three hours, then get loaded onto a barge around4 a.m. Wednesday.

The vessel set off for English Bay an hour later,waiting for high tide beforegoing around the north of Stanley Park and under the Lions Gate Bridge in the mid-afternoon.

It was due to land on the North Shore by Wednesday evening and be moorednear the Lions Gate Bridge until Thursdaybefore being takento its permanent location on the reserve.

"It will be an incredible sight," said Lewis, who said Wednesday was chosen as moving day because it will be the highest tide of the year.

Lewis said he connected with the Squamish Nation entirely by chance.

During a conversation, Bob Sokol, the nation's director of planning and capital projects, mentioned the community was looking to start a new school to teach children the Squamish language and wider culture.

"I said, 'Well, Bob, would you be interested in saving, relocating and repurchasing this little yellow schoolhouse from Henry Hudson Elementary? And Bob got really excited about the idea," Lewis recalled.

Five months later, theplan was in place.

The move will cost $150,000. Just over half of that budget $80,000 is coming from money theVancouver School Board (VSB) had set aside to tear the schoolhouse down.

In a statement, theVSBconfirmed it cancelleddemolition after hearing from the Squamish Nation this spring. It said it had originally decided to knock the building down because it was in "extremely poor condition," with "outdated systems that would be cost prohibitive for the district toupdate or maintain."

The original structure was built in 1912 asa Manual Training School, where students could learn practical skills and crafts like metal and woodworking. According to Heritage Vancouver, it was going to be torn down as part of the school board's seismic mitigation program.

Lewis said the building was an idealcandidate for repurposing.

"We confirmed that it's in good condition. It's 110 years old, but it's got beautiful, first-growth beams in it, and a lot of the systems were upgraded in the last 15 years," he said.

"It would have been a shame [to demolish it]."

Lewis said developers and builders have three sustainable options before tearing a building down: infill or build around it, relocate and repurposeitor dismantleit carefullyto salvage materials.

He said VSB consideredthe infill option, but it was ruled out.