Revelstoke School
Mountain View School, historically referred to as Revelstoke High School, has been a prominent institutional building in Revelstoke since 1914, the same year that Mount Revelstoke National Park was established and Revelstoke hosted its first ski jumping competition. The brick and mortar building features neoclassical revival elements with a large portico and columns that create a strong front entrance. The school building can be viewed from the Columbia River and rivals the historic Court House and surrounding mountains for dominance in the viewscape.
In anticipation of a rapid increase in enrollment, the school district hired Otto William Abrahamson to construct the high school. Mr. Abrahamson was a well known contractor in town. When first built, the building contained four classrooms, an office, a typing room and two rooms in the basement for domestic science and physics.
“When it opened in 1914, Mayor Kilpatrick, School Inspector A.E. Miller, and Chairman of the School Board Horace Manning, praised the community for providing a high school with facilities second to none in the province.”
(Revelstoke History and Heritage, by Ruby M. Nobbs)
In fact, the school exceeded the needs of Revelstoke at the time and did not reach capacity until the 1930’s. Unfortunately, later on more space was needed and an unsympathetic addition was placed on the side of the building. Due to anticipated school consolidation, the Mountain View School is expected to be closed in the next few years. The high school will be moved to a new building and the original use of Mountain View School, which has endured for 94 years, will cease. It is the hope of the Revelstoke Community Heritage Commission that this building find a new purpose and continue to be a landmark in the community.
