Marion School

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Marion School was designed by local architectural firm Smith Munn Carter Katelnikoff and constructed in 1951. The school was originally built as a public girls’ school and for some time, operated as a branch of St Joseph’s Academy, under the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. However, the school was named after long-time Trustee and Chairman Joseph Alderic Marion when it became a public school. The 17-room school was officially opened on Saturday, January 6, 1951. Both the Minister of Education, Honourable W. C. Miller, and then-Mayor, George C. MacLean, attended the opening.

With a generous catchment area, the school is particularly large for its time; the two-storey light brick structure was designed in two asymmetrical sections with a double loaded corridor of classrooms on either side joined at the main entrance. The light brown brick facade with many windows reflects a rhythmical layout but each window has been substantially filled in, with only the lower portion retained. An eight-classroom was made to Marion School between 1953 and 1954 to accommodate increasing enrolment rates. Despite this, the original look and intention of design endures. However the gym added to the south end in 1963, a potential signification of when the school became co-ed, is finished in a grey brick.