Description du lieu patrimonial

The Halcyonia Community Centre is a Municipal Heritage Property situated on a large lot located approximately 6.5 kilometers north of the Village of Borden in the Rural Municipality of Great Bend. The property features a one-and-a-half storey, wood-frame school house built in 1925 surrounded by a shelterbelt.

Valeur patrimoniale

The Halcyonia Community Centre is valued as a communal gathering place. This one room schoolhouse was built in 1925 to replace a school that had burned down earlier that year. The new schoolhouse became an important gathering place because of its central location, grounds and large classroom. The community held many meetings, picnics and events here. Although the school closed in 1967, the building was acquired by a community-run cooperative which continued to use it as a community centre. The cooperative was dissolved in the early 1990s due to declining membership and the school has since been used to display artifacts associated with the development of the school and community. The community centre remains a landmark in the area.

The Halcyonia Community Centre is also valued for its association with John George Diefenbaker, the 13th Prime Minister of Canada. Diefenbaker’s family homesteaded a nearby quarter section in 1904. The family began residing on the quarter in 1906 and Diefenbaker completed the seventh grade at the first schoolhouse on this site where his uncle, Edward Lackner Diefenbaker, taught. J.G. Diefenbaker went on to distinguished careers in law and politics, representing Saskatchewan in the House of Commons from 1940 until his death in 1979. Diefenbaker served as Prime Minister of Canada from June 21, 1957 to April 21, 1963.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Great Bend No. 405 Bylaw No. 1-1999.

Éléments caractéristiques

The heritage value of the Halcyonia Community Centre lies in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements associated with the school’s use as a gathering place and school, such as the large open classroom on the main floor, the blackboard, the stove and furnace in the basement and orientation on its original lot;
-those elements associated with John George Diefenbaker, such as the schoolyard surrounded on three sides by a shelterbelt.