Lisgar Collegiate Institute
Lisgar Collegiate Institute is a secondary school in Ottawa.
Lisgar is located in downtown Ottawa by the Rideau Canal. It is just blocks from Canada's Parliament buildings. The school serves the neighbouhoods of Sandy Hill, New Edinburgh, and Rockcliffe Park. The school is also known for its gifted program. It is one of the provinces best regarded public schools.
History
In 1843 a District Grammar School was opened in the centretown area of Ottawa at the corner of Waller and Daly streets. There were 40 paying students.
In 1859 the school was one of the first in Ontario to admit girls.
Several Grammar Schools were consolidated as the Ottawa Collegiate Intstitute (OCI) in 1873. At the time collegiate institute was a designation given to schools in Upper Canada that had four or more masters who were well-qualified to teach classics, moderns, English and mathematics. The school board aquired the land on Biddy Street for C$3,200 and paid a squatter C$100 to give up any claims on the land. (Biddy Street was renamed Lisgar street in 1880 after Lord Lisgar Canada's second Governor-General.)
The building was designed in the Gothic Revival sytle by W.T. Thomas and W. Chesterton and was built at a cost of C$26,000. The school opened in 1874 with Govenor General Lord Dufferin having laid the cornerstone.
In 1892 the school was the first public secondary school in Ontario to hire a female teacher.
Four new classrooms were added in 1892 but a fire in 1893 caused the school to be temporarily closed. In 1903 a new wing was built with eight new classrooms. Another wing with laboratories and an auditorium was added in 1908. A rifle range for the cadet corps was added in 1912 and a cafeteria in 1923.
In 1922 OCI was renamed Ottawa Lisgar Street Collegiate Institute which soon was shortened to Lisgar Collegiate Institute.
In 1951 a new gymnasium was built accross the street with a connecting tunnel. This building was enlarged in 1962.
In 1994 the third floor of the building was completely redone ad the science labs were modernized.
In March of 2003 parts of the first, second, and basement floors of the main building were damaged by a water leak, which allowed some minor changes to be made to the first floor in the reconstruction.
Noted Alumni
External Links
The school's website
Referenced By
Henry John Lawrence Botterell
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