10/12/2026
Memory Lane Mondays October 12th post is all about the Number One School!
At the Corner of Harris Road and Hammond Road was at one time Pitt Meadows' first school house, the Number One School Pitt Meadows. It opened in September, 1909, five years before the municipality incorporated. It was a one room building and sat on property donated by William R. McMyn, an early settler and farmer. In 1994 a former student of the school, Hazel Anderson, wrote of her early memories of the school as follows: “There was no electricity, running water or inside plumbing, just outhouses. There was a big hand pump on a well outside and a tin cup hung on it for all to use. At the back of the school room was a big wood burning stove that the teacher had to keep burning during the cold weather. Those that sat near it were too hot and up front were cold. There was a small entrance hall with the boys’ coat closet on one side and the girls’ on the other. There were five rows of desks; three were double desks and two rows single. I had to sit with a boy in a double desk so really got teased by the rest of the class… We all carried our lunch in little lard or syrup pails and I guess there was good plain food in them as there was no ice cream, pop, potato chips, etc….”.
In the 1930s, a second building was constructed on the Number One School site to house the senior elementary grades. High school students continued to attend classes in Maple Ridge. Around this time the basement of the Number One School was turned into a manual training shop. In 1953, the Number One School House mysteriously burned down prior to the beginning of the new school year, it was supposed to be used as overflow for the new Pitt Meadows Elementary School.
Much of the Number One school site is now Lion's Park. Nothing remains of the school site but the park is dedicated to children with an abundance of playground equipment.
Do you have a memory of schooling in Pitt Meadows? Share it on our community map https://www.pittmeadowsmuseum.com/community-map
