Central Fort George traditional elementary school will close August 31, 2011 after it was announced during a school board trustees meeting March 30, 2010. The school was given more than one year's notice to allow for the transition of moving the program to Spruceland elementary, now known as Spruceland traditional school, a choice school in School District 57.
Known as the Pink Schoolhouse, Fort George school was built on Third Avenue in Central Fort George in 1915, the year the City of Prince George was incorporated.
The two-room school had replaced a one-room log building that had been used from 1910 to 1914. It was a parochial school first then was registered as a public school in the 1914/15 year, said Barb Hall, Prince George Retired Teachers' Association education heritage committee member.
William Bell was the original school's first teacher and stayed to teach in the new building until 1918.
In 1945, it held 25 students and a year later, its name was changed to Fort George Central. One year after that, 100 students were signed up, and in 1951, five rooms were added to the original structure.
When the new school was constructed in 1963, the building remained as the continuing education adult learning centre, said Hall. It was demolished in 2004.
Central Fort George elementary became a traditional choice school in 1998 under principal Gervin Halladay, who is now retired.
The Central Fort George school building is boarded up and the grounds and structure will be maintained to city standards. School district administrators have not yet determined its future.
