Built by Charters and Brown of Sault Ste Marie. Public School rooms on the right, Continuation School (high school) rooms on the left with changing rooms for outdoor clothing. Large windows reduced need for artificial lighting. Half of the basement was the Community Hall. After World War II a Victory Garden was planted and tended by students and in the summer by the Custodian.School buses or vans were sleighs drawn by horses in winter, covered wagons in summer.

1959: high school grades move into new Central Manitoulin High School; elementary grades occupy all rooms of the original building.

1969: island-wide Manitoulin Secondary School, opens at West Bay (now M’Chigeeng). Elementary grades move into Central Manitoulin High School building (renamed Central Manitoulin Public School). Municipality uses original building for a variety of purposes: government offices, toy library, community organizations, Victorian Order of Nurses, health unit, dental office, law office. Some tenants make leaseholder renovations.

Fall 2016: the building closes, water, heat and hydro are turned off. Municipal Property Committee recommends the building be demolished. ACO members Blair and Lynn Quesnel, Linda Farquhar and Jan McQuay, with Central Manitoulin Historical Society and community members rally to save the building; lawyer Ted Williamson presents an appeal to Municipality of Central Manitoulin to preserve it. Council forms Mindemoya Old School Repurposing Committee of volunteers, gives them a year to propose financially and otherwise viable re-uses for the building. Ideas include a museum with artifacts from all three original townships, art galleries, childcare and continuing education, fitness and dance classes, music. community and social activities, workshops, mental health and addiction rehabilitation, meeting and conference rooms, rental offices and apartments.

January 14, 2020: Jan McQuay writes to ACO: “We have perhaps reached the end of the road for the Mindemoya Old School, a landmark building with a history of serving the community for nearly 100 years. Council is expected to include $150,000 for demolition in its 2020/2021 budget, after a feasibility study failed to come up with a plan to repurpose the building.”

January 2020: ERA Architects for ACO PreservationWorks! assess the structure, the heritage value and the potential of the Old School, pro bono. ERA’s Statement of Significance includes: “It is our opinion that the Old School, as well as its neighbouring arena, hall and church have inherent cultural value and would likely meet the criteria in the Ontario Heritage Act (OHA) for listing or designation given its civic contribution to the area . . . potential location for start-up businesses or student housing for the local college . . . realize the full potential of this built asset as an important component to the town’s and Island’s civic commons.”

December 16, 2020 execution or reprieve for re-use?
Central Manitoulin Property Committee recommends demolition of Mindemoya Old School.

Jan McQuay writes in an open letter to Mayor and Council: “Now, near Christmas, during the pandemic, when it is difficult to rally opposition, the committee has chosen to wield the wrecking ball. The Old School wasn’t even on the committee’s agenda, it came up under ‘new business,’ out of the blue.”

Mayor Richard Stephens: “This is an historic building, it is unique and it has a very solid base. There is no reason to bring it down. I would like to find a purpose for it, not destroy it just because it is sitting there.” 

If Mindemoya Old School is saved from demolition who might use it?
Weengushk Film Institute expressed an interest in 2019 but, unfortunately that interest lapsed.

February 10, 2021: Friends of Mindemoya Old School, affiliated with the Ontario Historical Society.

May 27, 2021: Council discussion of proposed “Five Points Community Centre’ with incorporation or demolition of Mindemoya Old School.

June 24, 2021: Council rejects Canadian Builder offer to convert MOS into seniors’ housing.