Kennaway Schoolhouse

(Back to the Drawing Board)

The examination of the Kennaway Village Schoolhouse is possible due to its maintenance by the Indian River Hunt Club, who added metal siding to the structure to protect it, as well as some new additions to the original structure on the left side (facing) and the back. The following is an analysis of the building using the research model outlined in the Built Form section.

Ron Mumford points out that the Schoolhouse was used as a community centre where gatherings and dances were held on Saturday nights. On Sundays, it was also used as the Church. Clergy would come from Harcourt or another of the larger towns to the south for the services (as an interesting note of social history, the richer people would sit on one side of the room during services, and the poorer people on the other. Even in a small settlement town social stratification can be prominent!).

Collection

The schoolhouse building itself was not isolated on its property. Immediately to the south side of the structure (still) stands the original woodshed used to store the wood for the stove of the school. A separate cabin, built by one of the teachers, once stood to the southwest but has since been moved and has burned down. The cabin served as the teacher's residence. The shed is now used as a garage for the Hunt Club and is equipped with a metal roof cover.

The Schoolhouse Shed

Basic Description

The schoolhouse is a rather large, rectangular building, about 23 feet high, 22.6 feet wide and 32.6 feet long. Originally it showed its wooden exterior, but has since been covered with metal siding. During its use as a school in the Kennaway Village, it was a two room structure (the schoolroom with a hallway inside the front door). Since being used by the Hunt Club, two additions have been added to the structure (see above). The front porch is also new.

The outside front of the schoolhouse still displays its original door and lintel work at the peak of the roof. The building originally had two doors, the front door in the middle of the outside front wall (facing west) and the other separating the interior hallway from the schoolroom. There were two original windows on the south wall, and one on the north wall. More recently, two additional windows were cut into the south wall and one of the original (green) windows extended into a door.

The hallway was equipped with coathooks for the students and boys and girls washrooms (outhouse type enclosures at opposite ends of the hallway). The original door which leads to the schoolroom is still used. The schoolroom had a woodburning stove which provided all the heat (and had to be prepared at 7:00 AM each morning!). The head of the room was at the east wall, where the blackboard and alphabet letters were located (see schematic.)

Deductions/Emotional Response

The schoolhouse (in its original dimensions) gives one a very strict sense of order. Almost totally symmetrical in all respects, the imposition of mental order in the form of this structure seems to be very "mathematically" logical. The two doors are in the middle of the west walls, and the windows are equidistant from the midpoint of the south wall. The outside doorway shares the same colour and design as the original windows.

The hallway further speaks of rigid order. The row of coathooks (the same lengths on each side of the interior door), shares symmetry as do the outhouse washrooms. Upon opening the interior door (whose handle is conveniently low), one would look across to the far wall, where the blackboard and (presumably) teacher's desk would be the forst sight the students see. The very existence of the hallway would serve to conserve heat as well as muffle the noise of arrivals from the working students.

The building itself is very solidly built and it is not surprising it has lasted in such good condition to the present day (even considering the help it had). For all these reasons, the general feeling of the building is that it presents a very efficient, well planned structure for the delivery of lessons to a group of students. Convenient in layout, strictly and logically ordering the students' world, the school represents a powerfully strong foundation housed in a neat, orderly, and proper appearance, stately and beautiful in its efficient simplicity.

Settlement Pattern

The schoolhouse faced west onto the Old Kennaway Road. The driveway leads up a slope to the building itself. The gentle slope, in front of and to the right side of the school, served as the children's playground. In the context of the village as a whole, the schoolhouse seems to be somewhat centrally located, just south down the road from the former locations of the livery stable and mill. It is no wonder that the schoolhouse also served as the villages' community centre where dances were held Saturday nights up until the 1930's.

Building Materials/Backward Linkage

The kind of wood the school and nearby woodshed are constructed from are currently unknown, but they would be made from a local wood. Besides farming, logging was a major activity in Haliburton. Further research will reveal the type and possibly the origin of the lumber.

Analysis of Form

(Future link)Click here to see school layout.

Glassie's (modified) rules of competence seem to be upheld by the builders of the Kennaway schoolhouse. The base structure is a rectangle, conforming to the forst rule set that implies that base structures will be a version of a square, modified where needed. The extension of the base structure are proportionate, the front and back (west and east respectively) walls are identical in dimension, as are the two side walls. Again, a totally symmetrical system is preserved incorporating differential heights in the upward extension of the base.

Glassie's third rule set, dealing with massing and piercing also holds true for the schoolhouse. The lone door in the outside front wall is centrally located while the two (formerly) lone windows on the south side are equidistant from the midpoint of the wall, and share the same distance from their respective corners.

Top || Kennaway Cabins || Kennaway History || Settlement Pattern ||
Bibliography || || Built Form Back to HOME PAGE