Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
Paul Wilson
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 11, 2008)
They built Van Wagner's Beach School 103 years ago, with six large arched windows along the front and three more on each end.
And on the side facing the water, the side with the million-dollar view of beautiful Lake Ontario? Not a pane of glass.
"Maybe they thought we wouldn't get any work done," says Bob Parker. Too much daydreaming, gazing out along that sandy shore.
Parker is getting a good look now, because today the old school is Baranga's on the Beach, a restaurant with lots of waterfront views.
And this is where some 20 former Van Wagner's students have come on this sunny spring afternoon for lunch and a little living in the past.
Parker is one. There were 10 kids in the family and most went to this school. The Parkers lived down the beach in a rented house on the Van Wagner farm.
So did Art LePage's family. He and Parker hiked to school along the shore, water on one side, orchards and little houses on the other.
Now both men are in their 70s, and they've been coming to these reunions for 17 years.
Van Wagner's was built as a two-room school. So the principal had to be a teacher, too. That would be Mr. Frank G. Walker, who reigned the longest, from 1932 to 1947. Some say he was a stern man who carried the strap at all times, just in case.
But down the luncheon table, Lois Hayhurst Lees leaps to Mr. Walker's defence. She says he was fair, caring and loved to stage plays.
"In fact," she says, "I became a teacher because of him."
The children of the Beach Strip proper, to the north, had a school of their own -- Bell Cairn.
Van Wagner's school was for the kids living in the other direction -- at Crescent Beach, Community Beach, Cherry Beach -- plus the children of the Parkview Survey, along Woodward Avenue north of Barton.
For them, the journey to school was a long obstacle course. They had to dash across the QEW, cross a swampy channel on a wooden span called Black Bridge and charge over the railway tracks ahead of the steam locomotives. Not a crossing guard in sight.
It was during the war, and shells being manufactured in Hamilton's factories got tested up the beach. Day after day, the kids in class heard the thuds of the big guns.
On fine days, lunch was eaten on the beach. The seagulls circled, but Canada geese hadn't yet moved in.
In winter, principal Walker would check the ice banks and sometimes let the kids go part way out. For any who went too far, the strap.
They played baseball on an all-sand diamond beside the school. Most kids came from poor families -- there might have been one glove a side. Hit the ball into the lake, and you were out.
The toilets were chemical. Every ex-student can still conjure up that scent in an instant.
And when Lois -- the one so inspired by Mr. Walker -- comes to these luncheons, she is 10 again. "I can see the whole classroom. I can see the people in their seats. I see Bev Wilson beside me. And Joan Bolingbrook. I see Velma Whitehouse and her cousin Ken. Now he was a troublemaker."
Not long after this group of 70-somethings graduated, there was trouble for Van Wagner's.
In the 1950s, the big storms hit -- hurricanes Hazel and Connie. Many at the table today remember coming down to pile sandbags on the beach.
That was the beginning of the end. The flooding caused people to move away, and some homes fell to make way for parkland.
There weren't enough students anymore, and Van Wagner's Beach School closed in 1961.
It sat empty for years, and by the mid-1970s some on city council were calling for it to be torn down.
In 1992, the Tsangarakis family -- operators of It's All Greek to Me restaurant -- rode to the rescue and spent $1 million turning the old school into an airy dining spot with a palm-tree feel, capacity for 1,100, old class photos by the front door and a long wall of windows.
Get a table there, and a pina colada, too. At Van Wagner's Beach School it's now OK to look at the lake and dream.
StreetBeat appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
pwilson@thespec.com 905-526-3391
I have attached a couple of Forum photos of the school, one from the first reunion and one from the last day of classes. I can't remember who donated these, if someone does, please let me know so that I may credit them.
Paul Wilson
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 11, 2008)
They built Van Wagner's Beach School 103 years ago, with six large arched windows along the front and three more on each end.
And on the side facing the water, the side with the million-dollar view of beautiful Lake Ontario? Not a pane of glass.
"Maybe they thought we wouldn't get any work done," says Bob Parker. Too much daydreaming, gazing out along that sandy shore.
Parker is getting a good look now, because today the old school is Baranga's on the Beach, a restaurant with lots of waterfront views.
And this is where some 20 former Van Wagner's students have come on this sunny spring afternoon for lunch and a little living in the past.
Parker is one. There were 10 kids in the family and most went to this school. The Parkers lived down the beach in a rented house on the Van Wagner farm.
So did Art LePage's family. He and Parker hiked to school along the shore, water on one side, orchards and little houses on the other.
Now both men are in their 70s, and they've been coming to these reunions for 17 years.
Van Wagner's was built as a two-room school. So the principal had to be a teacher, too. That would be Mr. Frank G. Walker, who reigned the longest, from 1932 to 1947. Some say he was a stern man who carried the strap at all times, just in case.
But down the luncheon table, Lois Hayhurst Lees leaps to Mr. Walker's defence. She says he was fair, caring and loved to stage plays.
"In fact," she says, "I became a teacher because of him."
The children of the Beach Strip proper, to the north, had a school of their own -- Bell Cairn.
Van Wagner's school was for the kids living in the other direction -- at Crescent Beach, Community Beach, Cherry Beach -- plus the children of the Parkview Survey, along Woodward Avenue north of Barton.
For them, the journey to school was a long obstacle course. They had to dash across the QEW, cross a swampy channel on a wooden span called Black Bridge and charge over the railway tracks ahead of the steam locomotives. Not a crossing guard in sight.
It was during the war, and shells being manufactured in Hamilton's factories got tested up the beach. Day after day, the kids in class heard the thuds of the big guns.
On fine days, lunch was eaten on the beach. The seagulls circled, but Canada geese hadn't yet moved in.
In winter, principal Walker would check the ice banks and sometimes let the kids go part way out. For any who went too far, the strap.
They played baseball on an all-sand diamond beside the school. Most kids came from poor families -- there might have been one glove a side. Hit the ball into the lake, and you were out.
The toilets were chemical. Every ex-student can still conjure up that scent in an instant.
And when Lois -- the one so inspired by Mr. Walker -- comes to these luncheons, she is 10 again. "I can see the whole classroom. I can see the people in their seats. I see Bev Wilson beside me. And Joan Bolingbrook. I see Velma Whitehouse and her cousin Ken. Now he was a troublemaker."
Not long after this group of 70-somethings graduated, there was trouble for Van Wagner's.
In the 1950s, the big storms hit -- hurricanes Hazel and Connie. Many at the table today remember coming down to pile sandbags on the beach.
That was the beginning of the end. The flooding caused people to move away, and some homes fell to make way for parkland.
There weren't enough students anymore, and Van Wagner's Beach School closed in 1961.
It sat empty for years, and by the mid-1970s some on city council were calling for it to be torn down.
In 1992, the Tsangarakis family -- operators of It's All Greek to Me restaurant -- rode to the rescue and spent $1 million turning the old school into an airy dining spot with a palm-tree feel, capacity for 1,100, old class photos by the front door and a long wall of windows.
Get a table there, and a pina colada, too. At Van Wagner's Beach School it's now OK to look at the lake and dream.
StreetBeat appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
pwilson@thespec.com 905-526-3391
I have attached a couple of Forum photos of the school, one from the first reunion and one from the last day of classes. I can't remember who donated these, if someone does, please let me know so that I may credit them.