The Fire of 1948

In Memoriam

We were deeply grieved to hear of the sudden death of the Orangeville High School on Sunday, February 1 at her home on the hill. She was in her sixty-fourth year, and although failing health was evident, her sudden passing came as a great shock to her many friends and acquaintances. First signs of her demise were noticed about eight o’clock Sunday evening, and although many friends were quickly summoned and did everything in their power to help, early in the morning she passed away. Left to mourn her departure are ten staff members and over two hundred high school students.

Yes, Orangeville High School has departed this life. No more shall we linger in her friendly halls nor study in her ancient classrooms. No more shall youthful laughter ring down her gloomy corridors nor gentle steps resound upon her creaking stairs.

How often have we complained of the poor ventilation and insufficient lighting, of the temperamental furnace and the dingy walls. But underneath our outward rebellions, we knew there was a love – a love deepened with the passing years and the lingering memories of pleasant hours within the friendly walls.

How often we have ruminated on the future of our school, that future that seemed so promising. We have thought of how the thousands after us would love her as we did – love her falling plaster and worn floors.

Her future? No, she has no future. It has been blotted out by the hungry lapping tongues of that great enemy, the victim of this terrible force of nature uncontrollable by petty man.

We have said we needed a new school. Needed a new school? No, we needed the old school. True, future generations may have need of better accommodations; but for us, who knew and loved the O.H.S., we could not want anything better. Indeed, it was not perfect by any means nor did it exactly suit our material needs, but as for the spirit it held and which was found only in the heart of the old school and although we may have a new, beautiful, modern one, it can never be the same.

Yet the O.H.S. is not forgotten and, as it is said that Abraham Lincoln lives on in the hearts of his people, so shall she live on in the hearts of those who loved her and who are confident that, if there were a paradise for schools, the Orangeville High School would be found there.

Edith Welwood, 1948

The School Fire

‘Twas the night before Monday And now we are sitting

When smoke filled the air, In desks of our own,

The high school was burning And if we behave well

And looked like a flare. We are not sent home.

The building was ruined;

We were absent from school, Willie McNeilly, 1948

The staff took a week off

And seemed very cool.

The churches were fixed up

And hurried to shape;

New buildings were ready

And weren’t very late.