Description of Historic Place

The Hepburn School is a Municpal Heritage Property located in the Village of Hepburn. The 1927 school is a two-storey structure clad in tapestry brick and detailed with Collegiate Gothic-style elements. The building occupies a corner-lot site at the intersection of Main and Second Streets.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of Hepburn School stems from its use as the community’s school since its completion in 1927. Since that time, the school has been one of the most important institutions in the village. Originally the school served Hepburn School District #1059, comprising the village and the immediate surrounding area. However, with the consolidation of the surrounding rural school districts that occurred from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the school became the centralized facility for twelve other districts.

The heritage value of Hepburn School also resides in its architecture. Built in the Collegiate Gothic style, popular for school and church architecture in the first half of the twentieth century, the Hepburn School features the symmetrical massing, parapeted gables, buttressed corners and slit windows within the attic which are characteristic of the style. The school is fireproof in construction, with reinforced concrete floors and stairs, interlocking tile walls, brick cladding and Bedford stone detailing. The design of the building included four classrooms, basement recreation rooms, lavatories and central heating. In charge of the design was Saskatoon architect Frank P. Martin, who designed the Technical Collegiate, City Park Collegiate and the School for the Deaf in that city and was responsible for many other public schools and churches in central Saskatchewan. A rare example of masonry construction and architect design in the village, the Hepburn school stands as one of the most substantial historic buildings in the community.

Source:

Village of Hepburn Bylaw No. 111/98.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Hepburn School lies in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements of the building which speak to its Collegiate Gothic style, such as its two-storey, central-entry, symmetrical form and fenestration, cross-gable roof with parapeted gables, masonry construction with brick cladding, Bedford stone sills, insets and detailing, entrance transom light, stylistic details such as wall buttresses and slit attic windows;
-those elements of the building which relate to its function as a school including its interior plan with four classrooms, two basement recreational rooms, blackboards and hardwood flooring.