The first school was built in Brilliant in 1910, with 10 more following in Doukhobor areas around Castlegar by 1920. It wasn't until 1919 that Doukhobor girls were allowed to attend school. With overcrowding and the beginning of the new village of Malinvoye, meaning
raspberry in Russian, this two room school was built in 1934. It was essentially identical to another, the
Fructova School, built at about the same time in Grand Forks. In each school, between the two classrooms were a pair of living quarters for the teachers.
The name for the school, and the community, was derived from the rows and rows of raspberries which the children had to walk past on their way to school through the summer. The raspberries, and other fruits. were grown to supply the nearby Brilliant Cannery, a staple of the Doukhobor economy in Brilliant.
After the dissolution of the Doukhobor communes, this school went to private hands. It was converted to "The Schoolhouse Restaurant" for a while, but is now a private residence.
Raspberry School
Description of Historic Place
Raspberry School is a Doukhobor style building located in Raspberry, an unincorporated settlement in the Greater Castlegar, British Columbia area. The historic place is confined to the exterior building footprint.
Heritage Values of Historic Place
The heritage value of the Raspberry School is significant as one of the last surviving examples of Doukhobor cooperative building construction in the Greater Castlegar area.
The Raspberry School is a long narrow brick building. It has a wrap-around elevated deck with white tapered columns and a sweeping continuous hip roofline. It is an imposing structure built on a glacial bench overlooking the Columbia River.
The Raspberry School building has an identical twin at Fructova in Grand Forks. Typical of Doukhobor construction of the time, the same building plan was used several times for similar purposes. Glade was another identical school that was built in 1929 by the Doukhobor society. All had classrooms on either end and a four room teacherage in the middle. Brick for the Raspberry School was manufactured at the local brick factory.
The structure is built into the natural contour of the sloping hillside. Two sets of matching stairways lead to the second-floor entrance of the stately building. The building’s prominent corner location on a major thoroughfare to the town centre makes the Rasp- berry School a highly visible landmark.
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of Raspberry School include:
- ts location on a rise overlooking a major road toward the river
- The building’s natural projection from the hillside
- Its wrap around deck with tapered columns to the continuous span hip roof
- Two large 2nd floor entrance staircases
- Barrel vault single paned windows trimmed in white
- Doukhobor style construction with community manufactured brick and white façade trim
From the RDCK Heritage Register