SECTARE FIDEM - PART TWO

The truth behind the classroom situation beneath the science block.

There has been some discussion on the blogs about the exact location of the 3P and the 3G classrooms in 1966.

It is my belief that these were prefabs and were to the left of the science block when walking from the main school building through the walkway to the old brick St Joseph's block (part of which is still standing even though all the other buildings have been demolished or removed and the area is now the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park).

At least one of the other readers believed that 3P and 3G classrooms were part of the science block on the ground floor.

This housed the two science rooms at the top and the art room and another classroom at the bottom.

The science rooms were inhabited by a strange little man with a very big voice named Father McCann.

Well now that The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ has invested in the St Patrick's College history publication "Sectare Fidem Celebrating 125 Years' St Patrick's College, Wellington, New Zealand's oldest Catholic boys' collage 1885 - 2010' (The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ will spare no cost in researching for blog posts) we can investigate this situation and find out the truth.

In 1960 St Patrick's College was expanding with an increase in the school roll and needed new facilities to cope. The new science block was opened in 1960 and was intended to be the first part of a major new construction of a new classroom block in the south-west corner of the college grounds. This was scheduled to be completed in 1962. Unfortunately news arrived that a motorway that would run from the city and out to the airport via the Mount Victoria tunnel would cut through part of the college property. All major construction was put on hold and, while negotiations with the various planning authorities went on, the school used prefabricated classrooms (the prefabs) to handle increased student numbers.

 

Prefabs were installed for 3P, 3G, 5P, 6P and 6G classes. Other classes remained in the old school block and the old St Joseph block. There were rumours that that 3M and 4M (students in these classes never made the fifth form) held their classes in the old gymnasium toilets.

The 'Sectare Fidem' book does not exactly detail which classroom other than the art room was at the bottom of the science block so it looks like readers will have to trust my memory of the various classroom locations.

I guess that clears up that little mystery.

Stay tuned for SECTARE FIDEM - PART THREE coming soon.