It's domed top can be seen pretty much throughout Vernon.
Ecole Beairsto Elementary is one of the oldest buildings in the city, and this week's history pictures shows a group from the first class in 1910 sending Easter greetings.
The school originally known as Vernon Central School was built in 1909. Plans were drawn out by local architect Robert B. Bell at a cost of $45,000. Price Ellison, instrumental in having the facility built, laid a cornerstone on the building Sept. 9, 1909.
"The design incorporates a mansard roof, a Georgian arch at the main entrance, and an octagonal cupola (small dome) dominates the roof," the original building is described in the pages of The History of Schools and Other Learning Facilities in School District #22 (Vernon), a project carried out by the Vernon Retired Teachers Heritage Committee. The book resides in the reference section of the Okanagan Regional Library, Vernon branch.
"The central portion was made of red bricks and the (added on later) side portions are made of grey stucco, trimmed with red bricks."
The four-storey building housed "large, cheerful classrooms for nearly 400 students in Grades 1-8."
Vernon Central School was officially opened Sept. 12, 1910, and made the front page of the Vernon News.
The school's first principal was J. Forsyth Smith, who resigned in June 1911 to return to university. He was replaced by Harry McArthur, then Clarence Fulton.
When Fulton left to become principal of the Vernon High School, Harold K. Beairsto was appointed supervising principal of Vernon Elementary Schools, which had 18 teachers and three schools, in 1925.
"His office was a cubby-hole halfway between the first and second floors," it says in The History of Schools..."It will chiefly be remembered by some as 'the place where disciplinary action sometimes occurred.'"
Beairsto was principal until his retirement in 1961, and the school was renamed in his honour. Edward Goss, who had been vice-principal for 19 years under Beairsto, was promoted to principal, a post he held until 1972.
Beairsto was very much community-minded. He was associated with the Canadian Club, Rotary Club Vernon Golf Club, Vernon and District Liberal Association, Vernon Fish and Game Club, Vernon Parent-Teacher Association, United Church, and Royal Canadian Legion. He was president of the Okanagan Valley Teachers Association, and an officer with the Rocky Mountain Reserves and B.C. Dragoons.
Beairsto died in 1972.
Ecole Beairsto Elementary, today, is B.C.'s largest single-track French Immersion elementary school, and the largest elementary school in the Vernon School District with close to 600 students in Grades 1-7.
