Walking around the hallways of Sentinel, I always see the old school portraits hanging on the walls. It makes me wonder about student life in the past and the school itself. This led me to think about the school building—has it always looked like this?
After some digging in the historical archives of West Vancouver, I was able to discover old photos of many West Van schools. Look through the article to see if you can find your elementary school and see how different—or how similar—it looks now. Or, skip to the end to see what Sentinel looked like in 1986, more than three decades ago!
The first photo was taken in March of 1986—almost four decades ago! Below, an image from Google Maps reveals how much the school has changed. Personally, I like the red accent.
The original photo was taken in March of 1986. Apart from the colours, the school looks almost identical to the present day, as seen in the photo below, from 2018.
This original photo was taken in 1923!
The first image of Chartwell was taken in 1986. Although the current image is very blurry, the differences and similarities in the construction are noticeable 34 years later.
This old photo of Ridgeview was taken in 1977—over 40 years ago! The person in front of the school wearing bell-bottoms also reveals the photo’s age. Although the 2018 comparison picture is taken from much farther away, some similarities are still visible.
Ridgeview Elementary School - Bonus Photos!
Old Photo: View of Ridgeview Elementary School. I[ts] field is visible in the foreground, there is [a] soccer game in progress involving an orange team and a blue team.
The older picture of Ridgeview appears to have been taken through a fence, proving the photographer's dedication to this photograph. I wonder what the students playing soccer in this photograph are doing now—30 years later. As seen in a picture from 2018, present-day Ridgeview students continue to use the soccer field for sports and activities!
Old Photo: View of West Vancouver Secondary School. Buildings were moved from Ambleside Army Camp around 1950.
The above image shows the Inglewood Learning Centre, a small part of West Van High, 70 years ago! I personally remember going into this building for CAO presentations. Other than some renovations, it looks almost exactly the same today!
Collingwood’s photos show a striking transformation. That might be because the original picture was taken in 1986, only 2 years after the school opened; the new image is from the school’s website. The changes and renovations made over the last three decades are evident today.
The original image of Cedardale was taken in 1977, just over four decades ago. Since this photo was taken, it seems that someone decided to paint the school blue—I think this makes for a nice look. Judge for yourself in the second image, from 2019.
Finally, we have arrived at Sentinel! The older photo was a shock—I never thought I’d see Sentinel without its identifying cover. I wonder how students dealt with the rain without it, back in 1986 when this photo was taken. Below is an image of Sentinel from last year—not that Sentinel students need a reminder of what their own school looks like!
I’ve never seen images of West Vancouver from this angle! Both images are from 1988; according to Vancouver History, that was the year the Ferry Building, built in 1913, was converted into the art gallery we are all familiar with today. For those of you that don’t know, the ferry building “served as the West Vancouver ferry terminal until the service was discontinued in 1947,” according to the website.
If you’re interested, feel free to search for images of the Ferry Building prior to 1947 at Digital.WestVanLibrary.ca/, or any other West Vancouver archival website (although there are few).
Sophia Vetrici would like to thank William McPhee for his work in documenting West Vancouver elementary and secondary schools through photography in the last seven decades.
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