Reflections of Havergal: 1994-2019

O V E R V I E W

Facilities and Grounds “I was immediately struck by the stately nature of the buildings and the beauty of the campus. My first time visiting the school was a misty, dark winter day, but still I felt the inviting lure of the campus. Entering the rotunda, I felt the majesty and power. The school makes one feel grounded. That has stayed with me over the years.” —DR. SUE GROESBECK, TORCH , SPRING 2013

Havergal Ladies College opened in 1894 at 350 Jarvis St. The school’s first 25 years witnessed rapid change, with the acquisition of new properties and the rebuilding of old. There was also a blazing fire at the Jarvis Street school on Friday, April 13, 1923, that, as Havergal: Celebrating a Century reveals, resulted in “one Niagara streaming down the back stairs and another down the front, while it dripped from every ceiling with a noise like heavy rain in a forest.” One month after the fire, the Board resolved, at Miss Knox’s urging, to purchase 27 acres of farmland at Avenue Road and Lawrence Avenue for $6,000 per acre, with 20 per cent of the price to be paid in cash from new mortgages and the sale of the Main School property. The decision was inspired, as was the architect’s vision of the “New School.” The Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, Colonel Henry Cockshutt, attended the laying of the cornerstone on April 23, 1926. The architect’s grand vision was not realized quickly or completely, however. As recorded in Havergal: Celebrating a Century , Marian Wood, Havergal’s second principal, wrote that when she returned from England in summer 1926, six weeks before classes were to begin,

Havergal: Celebrating a Century , Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library TT32331 ( The Globe and Mail , 14 April 1923. “When Fire Invaded School: Girls at Havergal Hall Yesterday Recovering Some of Their Belongings After the Fire Was Out”).

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