Carl Loewe and his Symphony in dm

Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe, usually called Carl Loewe, sometimes seen as Karl Loewe (November 30, 1796 –April 20, 1869),), was a German composer, tenor singer, and conductor, whose songs (Lieder) were well enough known In his lifetime for some to call him the “Schubert of North Germany.  Loewe was born on November 30, 1796, at Löbejün in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, and received his first music lessons from his father. He was a choir-boy, first at Köthen, and later at Halle, where he went to grammar school. As a youth, he had a high soprano voice (he could sing the music of the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute as a boy), and his voice developed into a fine tenor. The beauty of Loewe’s voice brought him under the notice of Madame de Staël, who procured him a pension from Jérôme Bonaparte, then king of Westphalia, which enabled him to further his education in music, and to study theology at Halle University. In 1810, he began lessons in Halle with Daniel Gottlob Türk. This ended in 1813, on the flight of the king.

In 1820, Loewe moved to Stettin in Prussia (now Szczecin in Poland), where he worked as organist and music director of the school. It was while there that he did most of his work as a composer, publishing a version of Goethe’s “Erlkönig” in 1824 (written 1817/18) which some say rivals Schubert’s far more famous version.   He went on to set many other poets’ works, including Friedrich Rückert, and translations of William Shakespeare and Lord Byron.  In 1821 he married Julie von Jacob, who died in 1823. His second wife, Auguste Lange, was an accomplished singer, and they appeared together in his oratorio performances with great success.  On February 20, 1827, he conducted the first performance of the 18-year-old Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21. He and Mendelssohn were also soloists in Mendelssohn’s Concerto in A-flat major for 2 pianos and orchestra.

Loewe wrote five operas, of which only one, Die drei Wünsche, was performed at Berlin in 1834, without much success; seventeen oratorios, many of them for male voices unaccompanied, or with short instrumental interludes only; choral ballads; cantatas; three string quartets (his opus 24); a pianoforte trio; a work for clarinet and piano, published posthumously; and some piano solos. There are at least two symphonies by Loewe – one in D minor, and another in E minor.  He also wrote two piano concertos, two piano sonatas, and a “tone poem in sonata form,” with one of the sonatas – the E major of 1829 – having a vocal part for soprano and baritone.

But the branch of his art by which he is remembered is the solo ballad with pianoforte accompaniment. His treatment of long narrative poems, in a clever mixture of the dramatic and lyrical styles, was undoubtedly modelled on the ballads of Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, and has been copied by many composers since his day. His settings of the “Erlkönig” (a very early example), “Archibald Douglas” on a text by Theodor Fontane, “Heinrich der Vogler,” “Edward” on a text by Johann Gottfried Herder, and “Die verfallene Mühle,” are particularly fine.  Loewe’s earliest songs, such as the Acht Jugenlieder and the Anakreontische Lieder, follow the musical pattern of the late 18th century tradition, using a single melodic line, basic accompaniment, and mostly strophic and varied strophic forms.

Under Zumsteeg’s influence, Loewe began incorporating and cultivating the ballad form into his vocal songs. When compared to other Lieder composers, Loewe’s rhapsodic composition style is said to have “a striking absence of organic musical development.”  His settings of poetry separated poetic ideas and treated them episodically rather than using unifying motifs (like fellow Lieder composer, Franz Schubert).  One of Loewe’s strengths as a composer were his “imaginative and, at times, daring” accompaniments, which were often atmospheric and exploited the piano’s sonorous and tonal potential.

Later in life, Loewe became very popular both as a composer and as a singer. He made several tours as a singer in the 1840s and 1850s, visiting England, France, Sweden, and Norway amongst other countries. He eventually moved back to Germany, and, after quitting his posts in Stettin after 46 years, moved to Kiel, where he died from a stroke on April 20, 1869.  In 1875, at Bayreuth, Richard Wagner remarked of Loewe, “Ha, that is a serious German Master, authentic and true, one who uses the beautiful German language with meaning, one who cannot be sufficiently revered!).”  Hugo Wolf also came to admire his work. He is less known today, but his ballads and songs, which number over 400, are occasionally performed.

The following works by Carl Loewe are contained in my CD collection:

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in AM.

Symphony in dm.

Shumway schoolhouse, Snowflake AZ

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Shumway schoolhouse

Shumway and Old Mill Roads

Snowflake AZ 85937

The Shumway School is a one room schoolhouse made of soft red brick with student names from yesteryear etched in them and a bell steeple at the front.  The inside is a typical one room schoolhouse setting.  In 1893 a log meeting house was built in the tiny, remote community of Shumway, AZ, founded by Mormon settlers in the late 19th century.  It was replaced in 1900 by a fired brick building which was used both as a chapel and a school house.   Several local men participated in erecting it.  Much of the work done on the building was done by John Zane (Billy) Jones.   His pay was the logs from the old chapel.   The chief carpenter for the building was a Mr. Reynolds. The masonry was done by George Gardener and his son Charles, of Snowflake.   Neil Hansen of Lakeside did the plastering.  The building must have been finished shortly after the turn of the century.

The school was named for Charles Shumway who settled in Spring Valley (now Silver Creek Valley) in 1878 and built a grist mill for wheat and corn farmers. A typical class in the early years was made up of 20-25 students in grades from 1-8; older students helped teach the younger ones. The schoolhouse served as a social center for weddings, funerals, dances, and church services until 1948.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints donated it to the Navajo County Historical Society.  When they reorganized their own foundation, they deeded it to the Taylor/Shumway Heritage Foundation. In recent years, it’s undergone a massive renovation by the Foundation, which stabilized its foundation and repaired its brick walls.  In 2001 it was dedicated as Arizona’s only standing one-room brick schoolhouse. Guided tours of the restored building are available by appointment.

Scottsdale Little Red Schoolhouse, Scottsdale, AZ

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Scottsdale Little Red Schoolhouse

7333 E. Scottsdale Mall

Scottsdale, Arizona

The Little Red Schoolhouse is a former school building located in Scottsdale, Arizona, which was originally known as the Scottsdale Grammar School and is now home to the Scottsdale Historical Museum.  The Little Red Schoolhouse was built in 1909 to replace an earlier one-room frame schoolhouse that was built in 1896. In the year 1896 Chaplain Winfield Scott recognized the need for an educational system in the community. For seven months Mrs. George Blount, wife of the principal of the Phoenix School, had been teaching eight children in her ranch home near the Scott Homestead.  On August 3, 1896, a group met with Chaplain Scott to discuss the matter of a school. The Chaplain, Mr. Frank Titus and John S. Tait were asked to serve as a school committee. On August 20, 1896 they met at the Titus ranch and organized the community into a school district. Scottsdale was chosen as the name of the district, to honor Chaplain Scott. Three lots were chosen southeast of what is now Brown Avenue and Main Street. Some of the townspeople erected a 16×18 foot wooden building. The school term opened with fourteen pupils, representing all eight grades. The new teacher, Hattie Green, was paid $45.00 a month. The following August another room was added, extending 12 feet to the north, to accommodate the growing number of pupils. This building was used until 1909, when the increased enrollment made it necessary to increase the size of the building.

A bond election was held May 1909 and a $5,000.00 bond was passed to build a new building adjacent to the original school. It was named Scottsdale Grammar School and now houses the Scottsdale Historical Museum.  The new schoolhouse was a two-classroom structure built of red brick at a cost of $4,500. In addition to the two large classrooms, there is an entrance hall, two small rooms for storage of supplies and books, and a full-sized basement that was used for a Sunday school and church and a community center in the early years. While the building was being used as a school it was also the center of the social life of the community. It was used as a polling place including the election that decided for a new Scottsdale High School, a Farm Improvement Society, and Red Cross bandage rolling. After the building of Scottsdale High School and a new Scottsdale Elementary School, the brick schoolhouse was renamed the Coronado School and was used as a school for Mexican-American pupils. The newly incorporated town became owner of the parcel and used part of the building as city offices and rented out part to the county. The schoolhouse was thus used as the Scottsdale City Hall and County Justice Court Office.    When the city offices outgrew the building, it became the Scottsdale Public Library, and then the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce.

In 1968 the city was going to tear the building down as part of the Scottsdale Mall development. The Scottsdale Historical Society was formed in 1969 to save the building from being demolished for the development of the Scottsdale Mall. They had many fundraising projects to raise money to restore the building. They were not able to raise enough money for restoration. The Chamber of Commerce then offered to help raise the money needed if they could use the building for their offices until such time as they could get a place of their own. In 1972 the Chamber of commerce signed a lease agreement with the city and moved in.  For a number of years the Historical Society held their meetings in the basement and had a small display area on the main floor.  Over the next several years, the school was restored to its original condition and now includes a classroom exhibit meant to appear as it did in 1910. In 1991 the Chamber of Commerce moved to a nearby building on the Scottsdale Civic Mall.  In November 1991, the Scottsdale Historical Society opened the building to the public as a local Historical Museum history museum with displays of old photographs, a classroom as it would have been in 1910, and other displays depicting life in Scottsdale and the southwest. and in 1994 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Amelia Schoolhouse Inn, Fernandina Beach, FL

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

The Amelia Schoolhouse Inn

914 Atlantic Avenue

Fernandina Beach, Florida 32034

Located in a prime location in downtown Fernandina Beach, FL, on historic Amelia Island, the Amelia Schoolhouse Inn was originally built as the first school on the island in 1886. Designed by acclaimed architect Robert Sands Schuyler and known to all as “Schoolhouse No. 1,” it ceased being a school later in the 20th century. After languishing around being a mix-used property for office and retail space for many decades, the dream was cast in 2017 to turn the “Old Schoolhouse” back into something the island could be proud of. By doing a complete restoration of much of the original items such as the windows, heart of pine floors, and brick, the Amelia Schoolhouse Inn brought back the original luster of the past and combined it with the modern amenities of today.  With 17 guest rooms, a pool, a courtyard with a putting green, and an upscale cafe named “The Principal’s Office,” the Amelia Schoolhouse Inn promises to provide all the amenities a boutique inn should have along with being in a superb location within walking distance to over 30 restaurants and many more shops.

Avery One-Room School House, Murphys, CA

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Avery One-Room School House

Off Highway 4

Murphys, CA 95247

Alongside a small gravel road that parallels Highway 4 in the small town of Avery sits an E. Clampus Vitus Matuca Chapter history marker celebrating the location of Avery’s one-room schoolhouse built in 1886.  Avery one-room school in Calaveras County, CA, was established April 4, 1886. School was in session from March to December due to winter snows that kept the highway closed.  Hazel Fischer taught here from July 1916 to March 1941. She was a bus driver. She hauled the kids to school in her own car. She picked up kids at Big Trees Park on one end, then all the way down to get Perry Manly, who lived at the pear orchard below Forest Meadows on the other end. She hauled fresh drinking water in each morning. She had a crock that had a spigot at the bottom, she provided each student with his own cup, and each morning she filled the wash basin.  She corrected papers for all eight grades and managed to keep peace and quiet besides.  Miss Fischer took all the students to San Francisco World’s Fair in 1939. She was also known to take them swimming for their physical education.  She also took them hiking and fishing.

The one-room school was built across the street from the Avery Hotel   When the mill opened in 1930 they had to double the classes held and some classes were taught in the hotel. Though Fischer owned a ranch on Whiskey Slide Road between Mountain Ranch and Highway 26, she chose to stay in the hotel during the school year, and even continued to live there after her retirement in 1965.  The school closed in March of 1941, and the one-room schoolhouse became another piece of Calaveras history.  Since its doors closed, the little school, now preserved by The Calaveras County Museum, 30 N. Main St., San Andreas, has been used as a stable, a cabin, and a storage facility.  When the present highway was constructed and the timber industry grew, a new school was built at White Pines in 1942.  Miss Fischer, who was said never to have missed a day of school in her 48 years of teaching, had become somewhat of a legend in the area, so that on June 3, 1964, the White Pines school in Arnold was renamed Hazel Fischer School in honor of the teacher who taught in the one-room school house in Avery and spent almost a half century teaching the children of Avery.

Lochiel One Room Schoolhouse, Lochiel, AZ

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

The Lochiel One Room Schoolhouse

Duquesne Rd.

Lochiel, Arizona 85624

Lochiel School sits near a wash shaded by towering cottonwood trees in the tranquil, remote community of Lochiel, Arizona, southeast of Patagonia in the fertile San Rafael Valley, very near the U.S.-Mexico border. At one time Lochiel was an official port of entry, but it was closed during the Reagan administration. Painted red, the stuccoed adobe building stands out and is one of only a few remaining one-room schoolhouses with associated teacherage left in the Santa Cruz basin. It sits at the end of 27 miles of dirt road east of Nogales, Arizona/Mexico, in the verdant San Rafael valley where Oklahoma and many other movies were filmed. Children attended school in the community since 1892, when Lochiel was known as La Noria.  Built before 1905 of adobe and used as a schoolhouse through the 1970’s, the property, which is owned by the Patagonia School District, became a site for vandals and litterbugs.

     The schoolhouse closed in 1972 when enrollment dwindled to a few students.  One of only a handful of remaining examples of rural, one-room schoolhouses with associated teacherage in the Santa Cruz basin, the property had fallen into disrepair. Vandalism and neglect had seriously compromised both buildings.  It lay in disrepair — much of it caused by vandals and the elements — for decades.  In 2010 The Patagonia Museum, a local non-profit organization which hopes to see the site added to the National Register, leased the schoolhouse property from the Patagonia School District for the purpose of preserving this historic site for future generations, to be utilized as a historic and educational facility for students and community. Germán Quiroga is president of the Patagonia Museum.  His mother, Elena Quiroga, went to the one-room schoolhouse as a child from 1939-48 with her husband Ramon. It was her dream that the schoolhouse be preserved, maintained, and respected as a historical site, attracting tourists and students to learn about the area.

The Quirogas, along with relatives, are working to restore and preserve the historic structure.  For the past several years, Germán has organized workdays to renovate the schoolhouse. The project to renovate the schoolhouse has attracted volunteers who believe in preserving history. They toil once a month on the schoolhouse.  More than 100 have volunteered to renovate the building, putting in about 1,000 work hours collectively. They have hauled trash, cut and mowed grass, stuccoed and patched walls, and painted the exterior of the schoolhouse.  Others have done roof repairs and installed new double-hung windows, doors, and a flagpole. Playground equipment has been restored, and a kiosk was built outdoors that holds a mosaic sign and artwork created by students at Patagonia Elementary and Patagonia Union High schools. The restoration work has been supported by grants, monetary donations, and donated supplies.

The exterior of the building has been restored, and volunteers have started working on the interior. The linoleum tile and plywood were removed, exposing a hardwood floor that needs to be replaced.  Repairs need to be made to the ceiling and walls, including patching bullet holes, and much-needed coats of paint. Renovation of an indoor bathroom is underway, along with a storage area for supplies and a section where students stored their belongings.  Original wooden desks used by students will eventually be put on display.  The two-bedroom teacher’s house that was built in 1962 on the property will become a large ramada with picnic tables. The ramada will include a section where historical information will be displayed.  The work continues with the help of dozens of volunteers and financial and in-kind support from individuals and groups. Volunteer and architect Brian McCarthy has provided The Patagonia Museum with an architectural drawing of the schoolhouse.  The Lochiel Schoolhouse and Teacherage comprises one of many heritage treasures that the Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance is working to preserve through the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area designation.

Old York Corner Schoolhouse, York, ME

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Old York Corner Schoolhouse

3 Lindsay Rd.

York, Maine 03909

The Old Schoolhouse, also known as the York Corner Schoolhouse, is an historic one-room school building on the grounds of the Old York Historical Society on the Village Green at York and Lindsay Streets in York, Maine. The Old Schoolhouse is located on the west side of Lindsay Street a short way south of its junction with York Street (United States Route 1A), just outside the center of the village of York. It stands adjacent to the Jefferds Tavern and the visitor center of the Old York Historical Society, which stands at the street corner.  Built in 1755, it is one of the oldest surviving schoolhouses in all of New England.  The town started building it in 1746, then paid two pounds 13 shillings to finish it nine years later. This schoolhouse was completed in 1755 in the York Corner area to provide schooling for that area’s children. The schoolhouse is a small wood frame structure with a gable roof covered in wooden shingles, with exterior walls clad in clapboards. The interior is quite plain, with wide hand-planed floorboards, a fireplace at one end, a small section of plastered wall, and a few small windows.  The school had no stove, just an open fireplace.  The building’s window openings had no glass but were originally covered in oiled brown paper, which would have provided a limited amount of daylight. (The interior is currently lit by electric lights added by the museum.)

     Maine, a largely rural state, had 4,000 one-room schoolhouses by 1900. That number fell to 226 in 1960, and today only a handful remain. York has one that survived, the York Corner Schoolhouse. It’s one of the earliest existing 18th-century one-room schoolhouses in the country. It was used for more than a hundred years. After the schoolhouse closed, a farmer converted it to a chicken coop. It was rescued from demolition by the museum, its previous use having been as a chicken coop.  Local preservationists saved the building and converted it to a museum. Originally located at York Corner near Route 1 about one mile from its current location), the schoolhouse was moved to the current site at 3 Lindsay Road in the 1930s to become part of Old York. Today it belongs to the Old York Historical Society’s nine historic buildings and is used for educational programs. In season, visitors can tour the Old Schoolhouse and Tavern.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.  Maine, by the way, still has six island one-room schoolhouses.

Examining “Human Rights”

(93)8-23-20           EXAMINING “HUMAN RIGHTS”
                                               By Jefferson David Tant

A familiar phrase to Americans is found in our Declaration of Independence, which says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

You will notice that credit for these truths is given to God, our Creator. We are thankful today for the foresight of our Founding Fathers, and their acknowledgement of the existence of God and the blessings He has bestowed on His creation.

Now consider a world where there is no God. What “unalienable rights” would men have? There would be none except the instinct of self-preservation. What rights did humans have in the slaughter of millions under the rule of atheist Marxists in Russian, or the ethnic cleansing of millions of Jews under the atheist German Hitler, or the present slaughter of millions of Uighurs under China’s atheistic Communist government? And we could go on and on with similar stories. We must consider that this is one of the ultimate conclusions of atheism.

Sadly, it is evident today that there are forces within our nation that are doing their best to erase any mention of God or any religious influence in our nation. Military chaplains have had severe restrictions placed upon them. Prayer and Bibles have been kicked out of our public schools. Can you fathom a 5-year-old kindergartener being rebuked for bowing her head to give thanks for her food in the school cafeteria? Or a young boy forbidden to bring his Bible to read during a class period devoted to bringing a favorite book to read? Then there was the case of a girl who was to deliver the valedictorian speech at graduation. She was instructed that she could not mention God in her speech. This young woman formulated a plan with her fellow students. At one point in her speech, she sneezed. The class in unison said “God bless you.” Good for them.

A State Department report points out that “more than half the world’s population suffers under regimes where the most basic freedoms are systematically denied, or under regimes too weak or unwilling to protect individual rights, especially in the context of ethnic conflict.”

Without God, what “rights” are humans born with? It is interesting that there are atheists who give credit to the “idea” of God and its benefits while denying that God exists. Friederich Nietzsche, who claimed that “God is dead,” said universal human rights came from a Christian view of the world. Tom Holland, the author of Dominion, has recognized that our ideas about freedom and the dignity of humans is the product of Christianity. The atheist philosopher Luc Ferry, wrote a book titled A Brief History of Thought, and observed that the idea of the existence of a God is why the “west owes its entire democratic inheritance.”

Yet increasingly, we see believers in God paying the price for their faith. A New Jersey teacher suspended for giving a student a Bible; the Washington football coach placed on leave for saying a prayer on the field at a game’s end; the Atlanta fire chief fired for publishing a book defending Christian moral teaching; the Marine court-martialed for posting a Bible verse above her desk; and other examples of the new intolerance. Anti-Christian activists hurl smears like “bigot” and “hater” at Americans who hold traditional beliefs about marriage and accuse anti-abortion Christians of waging a supposed “war on women.”

Various conservative institutions face pressure to conform to secularist ideology—or else. Evangelical schools like Gordon College in Massachusetts and Kings College in New York have had their accreditation questioned. It is argued that such schools don’t deserve accreditation, period. Activists are targeting home-schooling for being a Christian thing; atheist Richard Dawkins and others even compare it to child abuse. Student groups like InterVarsity have been kicked off campuses.

American Atheists Association, Black Lives Matter, Military Religious Freedom Foundation…Well, there is not enough room to list them all. According to an article in the Washington Times, February 24, 2015, here is what we face: “More than 200 groups and organizations that ‘openly display bigotry’ toward the Christian faith have been identified on an interactive map, a traditional values group said Tuesday. These atheist, humanist, gay rights or anti-Christian groups have made the list because they have tried to silence Christians or remove all public displays of Christian heritage and faith in America, said the American Family Association (AFA) in Tupelo, MS.” (Cheryl Wetzstein)

So, in the face of increasing attacks on Christians, what are we to do? Here are some suggestions. (1) Pray for strength.  “The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.” (Prov. 15:29) “My soul weeps because of grief; Strengthen me according to Your word.” (Psalm 119:28)
(2) Pray for our leaders. “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” (I Tim. 2:1-3)
(3) Strengthen our faith. In a conversation Christ was having with his disciples, “The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5) And how do we increase our faith? “Be diligent (“Study” KJV) to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” (II Tim. 2:15)
(4) Resolve to stand strong, as did Job. “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” (Job 13:15) Which of us has endured one-tenth of the trials that Job suffered?
(5) Accept persecution when it comes. “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matt. 5:10-12)

As our nation faces trying times, let us pray for a restoration of the principles that guided our forefathers which are enshrined in our “Pledge of Allegiance:” “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” And yes, some are now clamoring for the removal of “under God.” I still like the song “God Bless America!”

Patagonia Schoolhouse Museum, Patagonia, AZ

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

The Patagonia Schoolhouse Museum

100 School St.

Patagonia, AZ 85624

The Patagonia Museum, located in the 1914 Patagonia Grammar School at 100 School Street, Patagonia, Arizona, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting and preserving the culture and history of eastern Santa Cruz County.  The Patagonia Museum was incorporated in the state of Arizona in 2004 and was granted 501c (3) status by the IRS in 2007. In September 2010, The Patagonia Museum and the Patagonia Elementary School entered into a lease agreement allowing The Patagonia Museum to preserve the school site for educational and historic purposes.  In January 2011, The Patagonia Museum received a grant from the Patagonia Regional Community Foundation to provide arborist services and building weatherization.

The Patagonia Museum is up a slight hill and therefore has absolutely beautiful views of the surrounding countryside. The museum itself is very interesting with pictures and stories from the town’s old-timers, and visitors can find out about the mining and ranching history of the town. It’s full of old maps, photographs, and lots of anecdotes from local people about life in the old days. The efforts of recording oral commentary on the part of early residents are beautiful. The room dedicated to the Cow Belles, a tribute to the fine local women, was excellent too.  The two local men who run the museum are a mine of information, and it is a pleasure to find out about the area.

Lochiel Schoolhouse, Langley City, BC (Canada)

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Lochiel Schoolhouse

710 204 St.

Langley City, BC V2Z 1V5, Canada

The Lochiel School consists of a one story, wood frame school house in the Campbell Valley Regional Park in Southwest Langley, BC, in Canada. It has a simple rectangular floor plan with a cloakroom and entry at the front end, double front doors flanked by 3/3 windows and a bank of large windows on the left facade.  Built in 1924 to replace the first neighborhood school house, Lochiel School is important because of its historic and educational significance and because it is one of two surviving examples of its type in Langley.  Originally established in 1889, Lochiel School was one of the earliest schools formed in the new province of British Columbia. This later version of the school has a history of use and disuse (1925, 1986) and in being moved about to other sites (1950, 1975, mid-1980s). The school still retains a strong association with a number of pioneer families, some of whose ancestors were instrumental in its restoration. The Biggar Family and the Cameron Family are pioneer families most connected to this building. The Biggars donated the land that the first school stood on, when it was called Biggar Prairie School. It was the Camerons who, after a bitter dispute with the Biggars, named this second school Lochiel after the chief of the Cameron clan in Scotland.  The school house makes a powerful statement about what school was like in 1920s Langley and clearly shows the rural setting that existed at the time. Moved to its present site in the 1980s, the school regains a sense of its historic context by its proximity to an historic farmstead from the same era. The school is now used to educate present day visitors about life and school in the 1920s.