Description of Historic Place

Tankville School is a 19th century schoolhouse built in the New England meetinghouse style. This wooden, one-room, schoolhouse is located adjacent to the Irishtown Nature Park near Moncton’s northeastern most boundary.

Heritage Value

Tankville School was designated as a local historic place because it is a rare example of the one-room common school house design mandated by the Province in 1871.

The rectangular, single room, pitched roof style of the New England meetinghouse was a prevalent school design until a province wide consolidation in 1967 saw to the closure of most of the remaining rural schools of this type. In 1957, an extension was added to the east, nearly doubling the size of the school. The fact that it is the only one-room school house in the Province to have been restored on its original site makes it all the more rare.

Tankville School was also designated for its significance in the educational and social history of the communities of Tankville and Irishtown.

In the early years of Tankville, this school was the only public building in the area. It remained an active schoolhouse for this region until the consolidation of schools in 1967.

Source: Moncton Museum, Moncton, New Brunswick - second floor files – “1665 Elmwood”.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements relating to Tankville School’s designation for its common school house design include:
- Common School House No. 2 design (New England meetinghouse) layout with features such as rectangular massing, a steeply pitch roof, symmetrical fenestration;
- detailing such as returned moulded eaves, wide fascia boards and entablatures over door and window openings, and clapboard siding with corner boards;
- 4/4 windows and 2/2 windows and plain wooden sills;
- interior elements such as plain door trim, lath wainscoting on walls and ceiling, the restored/replicated wide plank wood floor, moulded window aprons with continuous chair rail.

Character-defining elements relating to Tankville School’s designation because of its significance in the educational and social history of Tankville and Irishtown include:
- original location;
- the pedal organ from local church;
- original exterior “Tankville” sign;
- vintage chalkboard with moulded ledge;
- period central wood stove;
- period teacher’s desk, bell, pupil benches and desks.