Blanchard’s School

Blanchard’s School

(School Section No. 4)

Concession #1, Lot 26, built 1834  (see map)

present address 47Kitley/SouthElmssleyTwpRoad

Shane’s School enjoyed an upswing in attendance during the 1950’s, when more people moved into the area. Further down the Town Line Road, Blanchard’s School suffered reverses and was closed in 1956. Pupils from Blanchard’s were then transferred to Mott’s Mills.

Blanchard’s reopened in 1961, operated for two years and closed forever in 1966. Motts Mills School also closed in the early 1960’s. Students from these two schools were then bussed to Jasper Public School.

Blanchard’s School was originally a log cabin located on the northwest corner of the Gardiner homestead. It was replaced in 1874 by a stone structure and educated generations’ of Blanchard children over the next 90 years.

In the School reorganization of the 1960’s, the school was phased out. It is now a private residence and stands on Lot 26 of the First Concession of Kitley. The school was built on land donated by the Gardiners.

In the 1870’s, probably 10 to 15 South Elmsley students attended Blanchard’s School. In 1874, John Gardiner sold the corner lot of his homestead to the school section as the site of a new school. A stone school was erected without borrowing money.

Thomas and Richard Gilday of Lombardy, brothers who specialized in carriage making, also were carpenters and stone masons. They built the new Blanchard’s School.

Blanchard’s School in 1905 had 21 pupils but in 1940 only 5 attended the school. New families coming into the area built up the population again but there were still less than 20 students when the school finally closed in 1963.

^{(Recorder and Times c1980 Darling Collection Book 5, pg.1)}