OLD COLEMAN HIGH SCHOOL
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
The Old Coleman High School is a two-storey, brick and wood frame structure in a mid-century neo-classical style, located on six lots on 18th Avenue in the community of Coleman, in the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.
HERITAGE VALUE
The heritage value of the Old Coleman High School lies in its importance as an educational and social institution in the Crowsnest Pass, and in its representation of the standardized school architecture in Alberta in the interwar period.
The International Cola and Coke Company had created the Town of Coleman in 1903. Before 1937, high school classes were taught in neighbouring Blairmore or rental locations throughout Coleman, but the maturing student population heightened the demand for classroom space and the Coleman School Board decided to construct its own, central, secondary school. Unlike other high schools in the Crowsnest Pass, the Coleman High School had an auditorium; this permitted extra-curricular activities and community services, such as night school classes in English for the large immigrant community. The Coleman High School continued to operate until 1963.
The Old Coleman High School is also significant as an example of the standard building plans used by the province in the interwar period. The school was built according to the Department of Education's Plan No. SP-1108; this combined elements of Modern, classical revival and Collegiate Gothic into an appropriately low-budget but not completely styleless building in a design recognizable as a mid-century educational institution. The High School thus reflects the provincial government's control over school design and construction in rural Alberta in the first half of the twentieth century.
CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS
The character-defining elements of the Old Coleman High School include features of the standard school design SP-118, such as:
- form, scale and massing;
- Modernist lack of decorative elements;
- red brick facade with decorative designs above the upper level windows;
-a stone string course at the level of the second floor windows and a stone capping the building, which suggests a cornice;
- central entrance tower typical of Gothic revival style academic buildings;
- paired double-hung windows;
- the original school yard remains intact allowing for unimpeded views of all four building elevations.
Original remaining elements and fittings of the interior of the Old Coleman High School such as:
- the staircase;
- flooring;
- ceiling;
- the auditorium and stage;
- doors;
- light fixtures;
- baseboards and trim.
From Historic Places Canada