Sacred Heart Convent/St. George's School

Sacred Heart Convent at 3851 W 29th Avenue was built as a catholic girls’ school by nuns of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, who came from Montreal to start the school.

Before ten acres of land were purchased for the school in 1911, it was a very rural area, with a creek in which salmon thrived, called Kh’ahtsulek, running across where the west gate is now.

The school was completed in 1912, with the last cornerstone being laid on the day of the feast of the sacred heart, and a ceremony was held. It became the 111th Convent of the Sacred Heart.

Charles Grayum Badgley, an American architect who was known for collegiate gothic and mission style architecture, designed the convent as his last major work, and it was built by Sefanius Johnson Lund who also built the Rice Block at 404 Hawks St. The Gothic Revival building featured granite facing (from a quarry in Deep Cove), a central tower with a drive through porte-cochere, broad wings, and a green tile roof (which has since been changed). An addition was added to the school in 1954.

In 1979 the convent was closed and the building was bought by St. George’s School who refurbished it at the time, adding sprinkler and heating systems, earthquake proofing, and modifying upper floors for boarding. It was used to house students and for their Junior School, which has occupied the building ever since. In 2015, St. George’s received an award from the Vancouver Heritage Commission for their preservation of the original building and boiler room.

Source

https://www.stgeorges.bc.ca/page/explore/history

More information

https://stgeorges-bc.myschoolapp.com/ftpimages/442/download/download_1880018.pdf