|
The
Rant
April, 2006
What follows is a transcript of a Here & Now item I did on Holloway School. Many people who saw it said they really enjoyed the piece. I think it brought back a lot of memories for folks who attended the old school. Without the visuals it’s not quite the same but I thought you might enjoy the read anyway.
Memories of Holloway School
 |
Robert Edwards Holloway by Ruby Gough
|
Karl: A book was published recently that got me thinking about my old school. The book was a biography of Robert Edwards Holloway, a remarkable Newfoundland educator. My school, Holloway, was named after R.E. Holloway. Previously it had been called Methodist College, an institution Holloway led for thirty years. With the help of a few Holloway partisans I’d like to tell you about my old school and the man who gave it its name.
Karl: I’m on Long’s Hill in St. John’s. Until I was a teenager I saw this street almost every day of my life. Holloway School stood here on this parking lot next to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian church. It was the only school I ever loved. I had good teachers here and I made good friends here. Holloway was an old school with lots of traditions. Every morning we’d have assembly and prayers in the auditorium, Pitts Memorial Hall. Sometimes we’d have special guests. Tim Horton of the Toronto Maple Leafs spoke to us one day. When class ended, the grade six prefects would have to run up and down the hallways ringing a hand bell to signal the next period. I also wore the school uniform with regulation red and blue tie. We were told when we wore the red and blue to remember our school and to behave properly. Artist Christopher Pratt was a Holloway boy too.
Christopher Pratt: Red and blue means something to me. I'm not sure I've always obeyed the dictum to honour it in the sort of Boy Scout tradition of thought, word and deed. But, no. And at the same time you know, those of us who went to school in St. John's in those years when I see a combination of blue and gold in this room, I automatically smell St. Bon's or two blues and it's Bishop Field or Bishop Spencer. So it really, really truly is ingrained.
 |
Fall Sun Setting, Holloway School, C. Pratt
|
Karl: One of my favourite images of Holloway School is this print created by Christopher Pratt in 1992. It speaks to his passion for our old school.
Christopher Pratt: Holloway School was the ultimate, urban, red brick schoolhouse, you know. It was on a grand scale, but it had that feeling about it. It was an absolutely wonderful building, absolutely wonderful. We had two gymnasia or gymnasiums. There were several music rooms, as you know. All the class windows looked south over the harbour, out through the narrows. Big tall windows. Sunlight streaming in. It was just an absolutely wonderful, wonderful building. A wonderful experience for a child and I remember all of that.
Karl: There was a female staff at Holloway when I attended. Dorothy Bradbury, my Grade 4 teacher struggled to improve my handwriting. In Grade 5 Lima Davis got me hooked on reading. She introduced us to Dickens’s, David Copperfield. Miss Davis taught 1500 children during her career at Holloway and as you're about to see in this 1984 interview, she loved Holloway School from the very first day.
Lima Davis: There are so many years and the pictures change. From the beginning, when I walked down the ramp from Harvey Road, down into Holloway, I remember distinctly hearing the music from the grand piano floating up from the Pitt's Memorial Hall and I said, 'I'm going to like it here.'
Karl: Christopher Pratt remembers one teacher, Helen Leslie, and one day in particular at Holloway.
Christopher Pratt: I remember the Normandy invasion. And I remember Miss Leslie being on the stage at Pitt's Memorial Hall and telling us that the invasion had begun, which, of course it had hours before we got to school. And I remember, and I shiver as I think of it now, I remember her saying, 'Already, thousands of boys will be dead on both sides.'
Karl: In its early years, one of the reasons Holloway School was special had to do with its name. Holloway was named after Robert Edwards Holloway, a brilliant educator who taught for thirty years in the building that stood in the shade of this hill.
Robert Edwards Holloway came to Newfoundland from England in 1874 to become principal of Methodist College, the school that became "Holloway" and bore his name. He possessed a great intellect and had many interests. R. E. Holloway was the first to introduce science to Newfoundland schools. Dr. Ruby Gough has just published a biography of Robert Edwards Holloway.
Dr. Ruby Gough: He had students going out and looking at white encrustacean on buildings in town and trying to analyze it chemically. He used the noonday gun as his example of the difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound. He looked at the Petty Harbour Hills as an example of waterpower and energy and so on. And then he would take the girls from the college residence out to look at the stars and he told them that if they remembered their names, they would be friends for the rest of their lives.
Karl: Holloway was also a passionate photographer of Newfoundland, carrying bulky camera equipment and glass plate negatives all over Newfoundland and Labrador. These beautiful images make up an important part of his legacy. Sadly, the school that eventually acquired the name of its legendary principal ceased to exist in 1984, when it was gutted and brought down by wrecking balls. It was a heart breaking time for those of us who had spent so many happy years there.
Karl: This is where the rear entrances to Holloway School were located, the covered ramps that lead to the top floor of the school. One for the boys and one for the girls. I always left school this way if I was walking home. Here along Harvey Road we'd stop for a 10-cent cone of chips from Rice's and wear away a few minutes looking at the naughty novelty items in Lim's window. They'd sell things like itching powder, firecrackers and fake vomit. Robert E. Holloway might not have approved, but we were kids. I hope you've enjoyed this look back at Holloway School. See you next time for another memory.
|
