As we reported recently, the new Tynehead-Anniedale Neighbourhood Concept Plan is currently being finalized – a plan which will radically reshape the existing rural community into a highway oriented industrial park and high rise residential area. One of the community’s most prominent features, Anniedale Traditional School and its adjoining Pioneer Schoolhouse, cornered between 176 St and Hwy 1, is set to become an industrial zone. The Surrey School Board researched into what to do with the underutilized, poorly located school, deeming it appropriate to move students elsewhere and close the facility.
While the decision is more than appropriate considering the area’s current and future use, it begs the question – what will happen to the Anniedale Pioneer Schoolhouse, currently preserved and maintained on the site?
Built in 1891, the one room schoolhouse was Surrey’s sixth school. While open, it had the local distinction of producing the most graduates with university degrees. Originally located at 96 Ave and 182 St, the schoolhouse was moved following the construction of Highway 1. Local residents and a parent’s group fought for years to save the schoolhouse from demolition and raised funds to restore it. The schoolhouse is currently used as the site of the district’s Pioneer Christmas program, inviting grade school children to discover school-based life at the beginning of the twentieth century.
As a Designated Heritage Site since 1987, the Annidale schoolhouse will surely be moved when the District decides to sell its property – the real question is where? One option would be to return it to its original location, although the area is planned to become residential. It could also be sent over to 140 St and 96 Ave near the City Centre where the District is currently building its new headquarters. Another idea would be to transport the schoolhouse to the Surrey Museum and Archives, installing the building next to the Anderson Cabin, a pioneer shelter built in 1872 – creating perhaps the beginnings of what could become a Heritage Village in Cloverdale…
Where do you think the Anniedale schoolhouse should be moved?
It does not “beg the question” — it raises the question. Sorry, it’s a pet peeve of mine.
Wikipedia:
“Begging the question… is a type of logical fallacy in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise.”