Description of Historic Place

Tenby School, completed in 1904, is a small concrete block structure on a large lot in the hamlet of Tenby. The municipal designation applies to the one-storey building and its grounds.

Heritage Value

Tenby School is a well-preserved and rare example of a village school built with concrete blocks, a material commonly applied between 1890 and 1905 to homes and commercial buildings in southern Manitoba. In this case, the blocks were artfully formed on site through the use of three distinct moulds. A substantial roof with well-conceived twin dormers adds to the picturesque vernacular quality of the school's design. Now used occasionally as a community centre, the exceptional structure, with its carefully restored interior, is the only remaining non-residential building in Tenby. The school site, with swings and outhouses, is also an important aspect of the building's value.

Source: Rural Municipality of Lansdowne By-law No. 2036/95, September 12, 1995

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the village schoolhouse character of the Tenby School site include:
- its location on the main thoroughfare of Tenby and placement facing east, set back from the street on a large schoolyard with swings and outhouses, bordered on the south by a low hedge

Key elements that define the building's picturesque exterior character include:
- the single-storey nearly-square massing under a truncated pyramidal roof, with the front enhanced by a modest gable-roofed porch centred between small gable dormers
- the walls of moulded concrete blocks, mostly of rusticated and horizontally ribbed finishes, but also including an elaborate and well-defined floral pattern to highlight the corners
- the traditional functional schoolhouse fenestration, including an orderly row of evenly spaced, tall rectangular sash openings and smaller windows in the porch and dormers
- the simple white-painted wood used on eaves, window and door surrounds and the panelled entrance door

Key elements that define the school's interior heritage character include:
- the centre-entrance plan with a compact porch opening on to a spacious, well-lit open classroom with a high ceiling
- the walls and ceiling of narrow horizontal wood panelling painted white and the dark-stained wood floor
- finishes and features such as the blackboards, dark-painted window surrounds with white sills, teacher's desk, small handcrafted bench, etc.