Enoch Turner Schoolhouse

Photos by Alan L Brown - Posted March, 2009

On the west side of Trinity Street between King Street East and Eastern Avenue you'll see this school. So who was Enoch Turner and why did he build this school in 1848? Here's an Ontario Heritage Trust plaque to explain:

Plaque coordinates: 43.653249 -79.36176

In 1849, this building opened as Ward Street School, Toronto's first free school. Enoch Turner, a wealthy local brewer, financed the construction and operation of this school on land donated by Little Trinity Church. Its students were neighbourhood children of poor immigrant families, many of whom were Irish. The Toronto Board of Education assumed responsibility in 1851 when municipally funded education was adopted, and renamed it Trinity Street School. In 1859, the school moved to a new location and this structure and property were returned to Little Trinity Church. Following the addition of the west wing in 1869, the building served as a Sunday school and community hall. Threatened with demolition in the late 1960s, the Gothic Revival schoolhouse was saved and restored by concerned citizens including architect Eric Arthur. It re-opened as a museum in 1972 and remains the oldest school structure in Toronto.

Related web pages
Enoch Turner
Gothic Revival
Eric Arthur

Related Toronto plaque
Little Trinity Church

More
Educational buildings

Previous to the erection of the Ontario Heritage Trust plaque, an Archaeological and Historic Sites Board plaque stood on this site. Here's what it said:

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted March, 2004

This schoolhouse, the oldest remaining in Toronto, was built at the expense of Enoch Turner, a wealthy brewer, as a 'free school' for the Anglican parish of Trinity and adjoining parts of St. Lawrence Ward. An Act of 1847 had made free common schools possible in towns and cities of Canada West, but the municipal council of Toronto had refused to establish them. Enoch Turner's school was the first free school in the city. In 1851 the Toronto Board of Education took over 'Trinity Street School' as one of the regular free schools for boys and girls and it continued as such for more than thirty years. Since then it has been used as a Sunday school and for community activities.

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