In 1857 the long delayed establishment by government of normal schools at length took place. On the 2d of March the Jacques Cartier and the McGill Normal Schools[1] were inaugurated with fitting ceremonies at Montreal, to be followed in May by the Laval Normal School at Quebec. The Protestant Normal School at Montreal was established in the Belmont Street School until the Macdonald College Normal School was opened. Several private attempts to provide normal schools had been made, however, before this date. In 1854 a model school was opened on Bonaventure Street (St. James), maintained by the Colonial Church and School Society as one of a group of Protestant schools throughout the Dominion. This society (formerly the “Church Colonial Society” and the “Newfoundland School Society”), in connection with the Church of England, originated in London in 1823; it extended to Canada in 1838. In January, 1851, the two societies were united and became the “Colonial Church and School Society.” In May, 1861, it became the “Continental Church and School Society.” In 1863, 105 schools had been established, or at one time aided, by this society.
The school laws relating to the city of Montreal were amended by the act of 1868-69, and the present system firmly established by charters of incorporation being granted to both Protestant and Catholic boards to the effect that the Roman Catholic and Protestant boards of school commissioners of the city of Montreal have always been and now are bodies politic and corporate, and as such have always enjoyed and now enjoy all the rights and privileges of corporation under the respective names of “the Roman Catholic board of school commissioners of the city of Montreal” and the “Protestant board of school commissioners of the city of Montreal,” as the case may be. The commissioners were to have a right to hold real estate to any amount. The annual revenue to be paid by the government was to be according to the relative proportion of the Roman Catholic and Protestant populations in the city. In addition there was to be a special city school tax collected by the city so that the corporation should pay for division among both boards, a tax assessable on real estate payable by the proprietors equal to a stated per cent on the dollar.[2] The proprietors were placed under four panels, Roman Catholics, Protestants, neutral school tax from corporations or incorporated companies, or of those that have not declared in writing their desires to be inscribed on panels 1 or 2, and owners of real estate exempted from taxation. The neutral tax to be paid by corporations in proportion to the value of the property inscribed on panel 3 was to be divided between the Roman Catholic and Protestant boards according to the relative ratio of the Roman Catholic and Protestant population in the city, and the remainder in the relative ratio of the value of the property inscribed on panels 1 and 2 respectively. Jews[3] were empowered to inscribe on either of panels 1 or 2. Further source of revenue might come from additional amounts granted by the corporation of the city or from monthly school fees according to the nature of the schools, elementary, normal or academic, and from the issue of debentures, bonds, etc.
Since the passing of this act the progress in education has been very great, the number and dignity of the school buildings being marked.
Gradually most of the private schools came under the various commissions.
In 1870 the “old” Protestant high school came under the new board. Its history as the fostering ground of so many prominent citizens deserves special mention. The school opened September 25, 1843, with sixty-five pupils, in the Bigham building on St. Denis Street, near Notre Dame Street. It was founded about 1843, and shortly after its organization the Royal Grammar School was merged into it. The next home was in the semi-ecclesiastical buildings on Belmont Street, the cornerstone of this erection having been laid by Lord Metcalfe Governor-General, on July 11, 1845, after the act of incorporation in the same year.[4] Shortly before 1857 the high school was transferred to the premises now used by the Fraser Library and Institute. Its first principal was the Rev. George Foster Simpson. On his resignation Reverend Dr. Howe succeeded in 1848, and on his retirement in 1891 he was followed by the Rev. Dr. Elson S. Rexford, to be succeeded in 1904 by the present principal, Mr. Wellington Dixon.
“This school was in many respects,” said one who remembers it well, “a worthy example of this type. The masters whom I recall were the rector, Dr. H. Aspinwall Howe, brisk, alert, competent, self-possessed, showing many of the qualities of an English parsonage and of an Irish breeding; Mr. Rodger, stern, just, a Scotchman of serious type, an aquamarine set in steel, was highly regarded by his pupils for his unswerving uprightness; Mr. Gibson, tall, spare, peering, of classical proclivities; Mr. (later Doctor) Murray, a short, rotund Englishman, whose strong point was not discipline and whose pupils in their noisy acclamation wore with their heels a long, deep trench in front of their recitation form; Mr. Tronteau, instructor in French, who lacked that final something which commands the respect of British boys. Disciplinary trouble caused his retirement shortly afterward.” Other contemporaries and pupils of Doctor Murray remember him as a most lovable man, a lover of his kind, a deep scholar, a thinker with a brilliant pen and a high poetic and critical faculty. Another teacher closely connected with Doctor Howe was Dr. S.P. Robins, who became one of the foremost educationalists in Canada. The old high school, the scholarly gentlemen who taught this and its other memories are regarded with veneration by the Protestant grandfathers of Montreal of today who gathered there their love of culture and their upright principles under its successive roofs.
The next location of the high school was on Peel Street. It was handed over to the school commissioners in 1870.[5]
In 1890 it was destroyed by the act of foolish boy incendiaries. But a more commodious building was erected on the same site and continued its progressive work till 1914, when it was sold. In the meantime the new high school, a handsome building, being prepared on University Street, above Sherbrooke Street, was opened on September 8, 1914, to receive its new generation.
The past commissioners under the act of 1868-69 are as follows:
Rev. John Jenkins, D.D., chairman, February, 1869, to June, 1884; Rev. Canon Bancroft, D.D., LL.D., February, 1869, to June, 1877; Rev. D.H. MacVicar, D.D., LL.D., February, 1869, to June, 1876; June, 1878, to June, 1879; June, 1884, to December, 1902; William Lunn, February, 1869, to July, 1883; Hon. James Ferrier, senator, February, 1869, to July, 1872; T.M. Thompson, city councillor, February, 1869, to April, 1872; Principal William J. Dawson, LL. D., F.R.S., F.G.S., April, 1872, to August, 1883; W. Frederick Kay, alderman, July, 1872, to July, 1875; G.W. Stephens, B.C.L., alderman, July, 1875, to June, 1884; Samuel E. Dawson, June, 1876, to June, 1878; Rev. J.F. Stevenson, LL. D., June, 1877, to June, 1887; Rev. Canon Norman, M.A., D.C.L., June, 1879, to February, 1888; Richard Holland, alderman, August, 1883, to June, 1891; J.H. Mooney, alderman, June, 1883, to June, 1889; J.C. Wilson, alderman, June, 1884, to June, 1887; Rev. A.G. Upham, June, 1887, to November, 1890; J.S. Archibald, D.C.L., Q. C, alderman, June, 1887, to June, 1890; E. Thompson, alderman, June, 1891, to June, 1894; D. Wilson, alderman, June, 1889, to June, 1895; R. Wilson-Smith, alderman and mayor, June, 1895, to June, 1898; R. Costigan, alderman, June, 1894, to June, 1900; James McBride, alderman, June, 1890, to June, 1902; Very Rev. Dean Evans, D.D., D.C.L., February, 1888, to June, 1906; H.A. Ekers, alderman and mayor, June, 1898, to June, 1906; Farquhar Robertson, alderman, June, 1900, to June, 1906; G.W. Stephens, M.P.P., June, 1906, to August, 1907; H.B. Yates, M.D., alderman, June, 1906, to June, 1910; Rev. W.I. Shaw, D.D., LL. D., D.C.L., November, 1890, to March, 1911; I.H. Stearns, alderman, June, 1902, to June, 1911; Rev. James Barclay, January, 1903, to June, 1914; R. Turner, alderman, June, 1906, to June, 1912; Rev. H. Symonds, D.D., LL. D., June, 1907, to June, 1912; James Robinson, alderman, June, 1910, to June, 1913; Rev. W.R. Young, D.D., May, 1911, to June, 1913; Joseph Ward, alderman, August, 1911, to June, 1914; Rev. J. Scrimger, August, 1912; W.S. Weldon, alderman, July 1, 1914.