Dozens of people in Vancouver are feeling the effects of staying up late Tuesday night to watch the “Little Yellow School House” crawl along a busy street in Kitsilano.
The 1912-built schoolhouse structure on the grounds of Henry Hudson Elementary School began its journey to its new home on the North Shore late Tuesday.
It’s slated to finish its journey from Maple and Cornwall to the Squamish First Nation’s reserve, but not before taking a pause at its transfer landing site just east of the Lions Gate Bridge in North Vancouver Wednesday afternoon.
Many onlookers came out to watch the 1,900 sq ft historic building be lifted off its foundation and placed on a truck trailer Tuesday night.
Ready for the big move! The 111-year-old Little Yellow School House in #Vancouver Kitsilano is on the truck and about to start the long journey to its new spot on the North Shore. pic.twitter.com/5B06ZhwBNu
— Claire Fenton (@Ceeceefenton) August 2, 2023
With plenty of crew members supervising the procession, as well as the crowd, the one-storey structure travelled very slowly towards Arbutus before pausing to allow electrical experts to turn the traffic lights sideways to allow the building to pass by.
Ready for the big move! The 111-year-old Little Yellow School House in #Vancouver Kitsilano is on the truck and about to start the long journey to its new spot on the North Shore. pic.twitter.com/5B06ZhwBNu
— Claire Fenton (@Ceeceefenton) August 2, 2023
Right on schedule, the building then was transported by the truck onto a makeshift wooden ramp down the hill at Kitsilano Beach Park, and then onto the seawall just east of Kitsilano Pool, where crews were forced to wait for the tide to rise in order to move it onto the barge.
Similar to the speed and care required to move the building through the street, the journey on the ocean will also be slow — but, if everything remains on schedule, onlookers are set to see it pass by Stanley Park’s Third Beach at 2 pm.
It will then pass just east of the Lions Gate Bridge in North Vancouver at 4 pm, hopefully to the delight of rush-hour commuters who will likely spot the yellow structure from high above.
There were several road closures in effect throughout the evening, until about 1:30 am Wednesday.
We had to “make sure this move is done in a way that is environmentally and archaeologically respectfully sound, so that as this moves onto Kitsilano Beach and onto water, our parks are protected and it’s not interfering with any of the use of the public at the time,” Vancouver Park Board chair Scott Jensen told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview.
Glyn Lewis, the owner and CEO of Renewal Home Development, kicked off the project after his company became aware that the Vancouver School Board (VSB) was going to demolish the 110-year-old building as part of the redevelopment of Henry Hudson elementary school.
The VSB reallocated the funding from the previous plan to take down the structure, towards the relocation cost of about $150,000.
Meanwhile, the old school will see extensive work performed to improve it for its new uses, including a new interior. Some abatement work has already been done, such as the removal of lead paint.
The building will then be repurposed as a language centre for the First Nation at 100 Capilano Road and will be an addition to the Chief Joe Mathias Centre campus. Site preparation for the schoolhouse’s foundations is already well underway at the southeast corner of the intersection of Lower Capilano Road and Spirit Trail.
Back in Kitsilano, the new school is currently under construction and expected to be complete in 2025 and meet modern seismic standards.
With files from Kenneth Chan
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