Nelson School itself carries on in the form of a new, replacement school, built in 1958 and extended in 1981. The cairn, placed in 1979, was built to carry the original bell from the Nelson School, under which was mounted a granite plaque, which reads:
NELSON
SCHOOL BELL
Which was part of the original school constructed in 1907,
opened in 1908 and demolished in 1957.
The bell was placed on the original site and dedicated by
the teachers and alumni of the Nelson School Reunion of
July 22, 1979.
Later, in 1996, a time capsule, containing memorabilia from the old Nelson School, was buried at the cairn. Text from that plaque follows.
Memorabilia of the first Nelson School
was placed
here on
July 27, 1996
To be opened in the year "2046"
NELSON SCHOOL BELL CAIRN
Bell 1908; Cairn 1979
Historic Site #15479
This bell was part of the original Nelson School, which was built in the Town of Lacombe in 1907; it was designed by Lacombe architect Thomas Clark King, who also designed St. Cyprian’s Anglican Church. Nelson School was the first major structure to be built from the product of the fledgling Lacombe Brick, Tile and Cement Company. Frank Vickerson was a principal of this company and the clay was provided from his farm located at the eastern boundary of the town. In June 1909, Lacombe’s Western Globe reported that the company had been awarded a contract to supply a quarter-million bricks for the construction of government buildings in Ponoka.
The School opened its doors to the children of the area in 1908 and remained a significant part of life in Lacombe for close to 50 years before it was torn down in 1957. The bell, originally located in the bell tower of the brick school, has been mounted in a memorial cairn. The inscription on the cairn reads that the Nelson School Bell “was placed on the original site and dedicated by the teachers and alumni of the Nelson School Reunion of July 22, 1979”.
From the Lacombe Municipal Heritage Survey