A prominent Galt landmark and one of the oldest schools in Waterloo region has been transformed from a place of learning to a place of living.
Dickson Public School opened its doors today, giving former students and staff an opportunity to walk through their former classrooms and marvel at the new space.
Built in 1877 and closed in 2014, the school was initially purchased with the intention of using it for office space. Those plans changed following the pandemic resulting in the 10-unit condominium that keeps the character of the building alive.
Shelia Langdown was a teacher at the school until she retired in 2000. She taught on the second floor for 14 years in a space that is now someone's living room.
"I knew the window view and that's how I figured out this is where I was, but it's quite a transition," said Langdown. "The school itself is near and dear to my heart."
Having started working at the school on St. Andrews Street in 1986, Langdown remembers hearing the bell in the clock tower ring every year for the last day of school. On the day she retired, she rang that bell for the last time, having only come back 24 years later to see her old classroom.
The open house gave her the chance to reconnect with friends, parents and other staff she hadn't seen in over two decades.
Cheryl Bell was a secretary at the school for 37 years until she retired when the school closed in 2014. Bell and Langdown worked together and remember the fond memories in working at one of the oldest schools still standing in the region.
"I've had a couple people say it, but they felt sad seeing it, but I'm quite happy it got put to use," said Bell.
The former secretary has a storied past with the school as she also attended the school as a student.
"I was kindergarten to Grade 5 and my dad was born in the living room in one of the units across the road," she said. "He also attended the school here as well."
When Bell was hired at the school, she remembers one of her former teachers still being at the school, teaching in the same room.
"I could not call her by her first name. I still called her Mrs. Ferguson," Bell said with a laugh.
Living right across the street, Bell's father would regularly help out at the school whether that be shovelling coal into the furnace to help heat the building or turning on the fire hose to flood the park to create an ice rink.
The owner of the building, Mark McInnes, has had a long journey transforming the school and is happy to be finally able to show off the ten years of work that has gone into the space.
"It's so gratifying to be able to have people walk through here," he said as he toured through one of the still available units.
Out of 10 units, five are rented and interest in the remaining ones is immense. Having printed off nearly 200 brochures, staff at the building had to quickly print off extras as they were handed out within the first hour of today's open house.
One of the things McInnes is most proud of is hearing the stories from former students and staff like Bell and Langdown about their time at the school and their approval of the new space.
"The reception has been overwhelmingly positive. We've been able to keep so much character and soul in this building," he said.
All of the classrooms have been turned into luxury living spaces, while still retaining the vintage wainscotting around the windows and walls.
Where blackboards and chalk used to sit is now home to cabinets and appliances and those who used to walk the old school's halls couldn't be happier.
"It's been amazing seeing what they've done here. If this place was torn down it would have been a travesty," said Bell.
