New Westminster Secondary School

Sunday, and snow is in the air. Puddles hide under crusts of solid ice and clouds are hanging heavy and dark. The winter solstice is here in just over two weeks.

There's a chill in the air that is here to stay for a good three months or more.

Took the time today to shoot right close to home before the opportunity vanished.

We popped around to the now closed New Westminster Secondary School [NWSS]. The site is massive and like any school I've ever been around - confusing in it's sprawling design.

The school was founded in 1960 and was/is one of the largest high schools in British Columbia. With just over 2,000 students at one point.

Disconcertingly, the NWSS is built on sacred ground of the former Davidson Cemetery of the late 1800s. The city declared the cemetery 'full' in 1907 and was officially closed by the city in 1914.

Many remains of people of colour and those of marginalized groups were never removed from the cemetery, and their bones lay below the foundation of the school to this day.

There has been an agreement made to preserve the site and erect a memorial park and not allow any building to take place.

We drove in a bit of a sporatic circle around the building(s) trying to capture the most interesting 'architecture' and the most delapidated areas. At the time I had no idea what was underneath my feet. I will say that a heavy sadness lingered over me long after we'd driven off in search of a new shovel. Winter is coming after all.

Images in no particular order. There is also an image of the Massey Theatre looking as delapidated as the school and a shot of the fancy new school that replaced this old girl. Oh, and a few 'shots-through-the-car-window' of this and that.

Believe it or not, the only broken window we found.

The prettiest birdsong filled the empty air. This was the artist.

This is the condition the Massey Theatre is in...

The paint is so old it's shriveled and sagging.

Distant mountains with a dusting of snow.

Behold, the new NWSS.

The front entrance.

A forlorn flagpole.

Bones beneath.

Weather-worn address.

Ken Lum with his work, The Retried Draft Horse and the Last Pulled Log by East Van artist Ken Lum. It is of an old horse with sway back, dropping to the ground exhausted, still in his yoke.

Greenhouses.

Neighbourhood doggo.