Black and white class photo with Olive Prytherch.

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salishan Place by the River currently maintains a collection of over 9000 photographs, 2000 archival documents, 9000 objects, 500 works of art, and 300 oral history recordings. This collection, spanning hundreds of years, is a wonderful window on the past and present life of our community.

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Object Description

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Object Name

Print, Photographic

Object ID

2015.027.032

Title

Black and white class photo with Olive Prytherch.

Date

[Between 1929 and 1932].

Description

Black and white class photo of Langley Prairie Public School with thirty one students and one teacher. Students are standing in rows in front of a building. Olive Prytherch is the first person from the right in the first front row, wearing a plain white dress with stockings. The words "WREDBERG'S HIGH-ART PHOTOS" are embossed towards the middle of the photo. The picture is glued onto cardstock.

People/Subject

Genovese, Olive (nee Prytherch)

Olive Genovese (nee Prytherch) was born in Langley Prairie B.C on February 9th,1924 to Peter and Annie Prytherch. Olive was the youngest of her four siblings, Annie, Ernest, Dorothy and Sam. Olive went to school at the Langley Prairie Public School, and attended Sunday School at St. Andrew's Anglican Church. She married Antonio Genovese on the 26th of July 1958, and the couple moved to 1471 Rupert St., Vancouver. Olive did not have any children. Olive passed away on March 18th, 2014 at Eagle Ridge Hospital in Coquitlam.

Langley Prairie School

The Langley Prairie School is actually one of a few "Langley Prairie" or "Prairie" schools in Langley with such a name.
On April 1, 1875 Prairie School opened at Innes' Corners (north east corner of Glover Road and Old Yale Rd-Fraser Hwy). Miss Florence Coulthard was the first teacher. Despite the vast school boundary, which stretched to the American border, it was difficult to get attendance, and there were only about 8 children attending in 1876. The building was used for church services and political meetings as well, but burnt down in the winter of 1880-81. School continued in a room of Adam Innes' house while a new school was being built, presumably on the same site.

The second school struggled to get enough students, too, and the school was closed permanently in 1885. Sometime in 1892 or 1893 the Order of the Immaculate Conception bought the Prairie School from the Provincial Government and moved it across the Yale Road to Michaud's hay field, where it was used as a Catholic Church until 1925. In 1925 it was moved up Yale Road and converted into a store.

When the second school closed, the name Prairie School was transferred to a new school on the west side of Townline Road (216th Street) between Milner and Murrayville, on land donated by the John Beaton McLeod family. It was known as the Prairie School until 1907, when it was renamed Langley Prairie School. Milner did not get it's name until 1910, and since the school was closer to Milner than to Langley Prairie, the School Board renamed it Milner School, and it was moved north.

In 1895 a new school was built on the southeast corner of New McLellan Road (200th Street) and Hunter Road (56th Ave), and, despite the confusion, it seems that this school was also called Langley Prairie School. In 1907, when the other school became "Langley Prairie", this school was renamed Glencoe School, and it served the area until 1915.

In 1915 the BCER came through Langley, and the station was named Langley Prairie, so the Innes Corner name faded away. When a new school was built in 1915 on land donated by the Logans on the south side of Yale Road (20060 Fraser Highway) it consisted of two rooms with a basement underneath, which was the first covered play area in the Municipality. In 1920 the southern section of the school was added. the building had several renovations over the years, including a changed entrance, storage facilities, a closed-in basement, gas heating, fire escape stairs, and washrooms. In the 190s, a new building was built south of the old school with more classrooms, a library, gym, and an office. Alice Brown attended this school when it first opened, and returned to be its principal for 18 years. The school became a Fundamental School in the late 1970s or early 1980s. On October 5, 1982 the school suffered $30,000 in damage when arsonists set fire to it.
Term Source: History of Langley Schools" Langley School District #35 1867-2004" by Harry McTaggart, Maureen Pepin and Norman Sherritt

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