Thursday, January 6, 2011

Spanish Residential School

During my trip down to Southern Ontario during the holidays I stopped at the former site of the Indian Residential School in Spanish, Ontario. This site was once home to St. Peter Claver's Residential School for Boys, St. Joseph's Girls Residential School. Eventually St. Peter Claver's was turned into the Garnier Residential School.



The site is now private property and is located on an aptly named "Garnier Road." The boys' school was torn down in 2004. The girls school was ravaged by fire in 1958 however the shell of the building is still standing. Above are the pictures of what is left of the residential school.

Photo credit for historic photo of the Spanish Residential School site: Residential School Archive and Research Centre.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

a nightmare for native children, who were ripped out of their homes, from as young as the age of 5,torchured, raped, abused, physically beaten, imagine that happening to YOUR 5 YR OLD.....PROBABLY NOT UH!

Anonymous said...

My father was sent to this hell hole when he was 6yrs old, yeah he got out alive, he never opened up to us about if he was abused or not, but from our upbringing i would say he was, but i loved him no matter what, he did the best he could raising 5 kids of his own, he's not with us anymore, but i can't imagine what he went though, love and miss my daddy<3

Unknown said...

My grandfather was here...and this place is the reason I can not speak Ojibwe...so sad and makes me so angry...he's never said anything to me about it...only hear from my mother...