Birchard Gardens

Northwest Corner of Centre Street & Mount Albert Road

The first school built in the village was located on the northwest corner of Centre and Albert Streets.  The South School, as it was called, was a little log cabin that was built around 1840 on land donated by Israel Birchard.  In the deed, it was stated that "this quarter acre was to be used for public purposes as long as the grass grew green and water flowed down the hill."

The deed of land was from Israel to William Mainprize, Alex Fletcher and George Stokes. Israel came to Mount Albert in 1835.  Mr. Stokes did not arrive until 1838.  This suggests that the school was built around 1840.

According to the Birchard Family history, Rufus Birchard was one of the first teachers in the school and the only Birchard to teach in the school.  He left Mount Albert in 1846. 

The log cabin was used for a few years and then was replaced by a larger frame structure built just north of it.  It is not know what happened to the log cabin.

Although there are no pictures of the South School, it is believed that the log cabin school would have looked like the log cabin school in this picture.  This school is the Glengarry School that has been moved to Upper Canada Village.  The frame school would have looked similar to the North School.

In 1870, 25 students attended the school.  The South School was used until the new public school on Centre Street opened in 1890.  Sometime after it closed, the School burned down. 

For many years this lot remained unused and overgrown with weeds.  In 1967, the Horticultural Society cleaned up the grounds and a little park was created, called Birchard Gardens, in honour of the early settlers.  The Horticultural Society continues to maintain the Gardens.

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