NEW SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.

Colonist, Volume L, Issue 12159, 6 February 1908, Page 5 (Supplement)

NEW SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.

-'OPENING BY CHAIRMAN OF THE EDUCATION JBOAR.D. } After an agitation lasting several vents tlie State school for girls in the upper standard has been removed from Toi Toi Valley —a site generally conceded to be the most unsuitable — and the work of the New Year will commence in the tine Dew school just erected on one of the sunniest and most desirable sices in Nelson. Though it is but „ the accident of circumstances, the fact that one of the" leading- schools iv the province now adorns the site iprmerly occupied by the disused public prison is food for thought and congratulation. Limited means had a considerable bearing upon the class of building to be erected, and taking this in account the educational bodies concerned and the architect, Mr A. K. Griffin, a young Nelsoman, are to be congratulated upon the success achieved — a very presentable commodious building, well suited ior its purpose. The building has primarily been designed to obtain the maximum of light and sunshine. It contains five class rooms, four 25 by 36 feet in floor area, and one 24 by 25 feet. i Three of these classrooms occupy the central and main portion of the building, which is flanked by a wing on either side, oach consisting of one large class room. These wings are let so far back that for the purpose of window lighting practically all the advantages of detached buildings ia secured, the interior means of access to all parts of the building being preserved ample and convenient. The central portion has a frontage of 92 feet by .a depth of 52 feet and the wings each 38 feet by 27 feet. The corridors are wide and give ready access to every part of the building, and there are entrance doors both front and rear. The walls of the class room are 14 feet in height and the ceilings are coved to improve the acoustic properties of the rooms. Great attention -has been paid to ventilation. The window sashes are divided, into three portions, the middle portion being fast while the upper and lower portions are hinged to open outwards. Tobiu tubes are let iuto the walls, fitted at the top with Laurence Thompson patent slat ventilators, controllable. In addition there are four patent Boyle ventilators on the roof with some twenty ceiling ventilators to correspond. The back corridor opens upon the whole live class rooms, and in reoessed positions are ten fixed wash basins. Hera also is a library cupboard 25 feet in length. Private rooms are provided for the head and assistant teachers respectively, that for the assistants being furnished with a- fire-place. The heating of the classroom will be by means of slow combustion stoves brought from the old school. The latrines are situated in a detaohed j building well to the rear of the school. Shelter shed, bicycle shed, and fuel stores are combined in a two storey building to thß east of the school. In exterior the style of architecture is an adaptation of the early English Renaissance, presenting a pleasing appearance with a parapet running round the walls, the wide i windows surmounted by pediments, i those in the gable ends being finished at the head with lead lights. The gable ends are in keeping with the general exterior with heavy pediments, and rise to a height of 38 feet from the ground the parapet. A belfry of wood with tiled base, and fitted with a flagstaff, surmounts the whole structure, -which is roofed with red Marseilles tiles. Messrs Robertson Bros., Ltd., were the builders, Messrs Savage and Sons doing the painting, and the Nelson lin ware" Company the plumbing work.