Kensington kids on the footbridge with St. Mary's School in the background. c1962--PHOTO Shelly MacPhail
Medicine Hat’s post-war baby boom created a need for new schools and housing. One area seen as potential for both was the Kensington locale, which had been the site of the Connaught Golf Course for more than three decades.
In 1954, city council under mayor Harry Veiner approved an exchange of land to provide for the city’s southwest residential expansion. Connaught Golf Course moved to its present location. The clubhouse, which was originally the airport chapel for the No. 34 Service Flying Training School during the Second World War, was relocated for a second time. Plans were laid for new homes on what was once part of the golf course fairway.
Land was reserved for two new schools, a separate school to the east and a public school in the centre of the new subdivision. The public school never materialized, and a portion of that school property is today, Kensington Park.
In 1956, the separate school was built on 10 acres of land, with another four acres added later. St. Mary’s School was constructed about where the Connaught Golf Course clubhouse once stood. Behind the building site, spanning the Kensington Coulee was once a narrow suspension bridge used by the golf course to link a couple of holes. At one time a railway line ran under the suspension bridge. Off golf season, the swinging bridge had for years been the playground of neighbourhood children who would rock each end of the bridge, creating a giant swing for a playmate or two. The old suspension bridge was disassembled.
St. Mary’s opened in January 1957. The first students were from St. Theresa’s Academy, the Marion School and St. Louis school. At around the same time, lots were selling in the new Kensington subdivision. The wide lots sold for around $1,000. Because residences were required to be of a certain standard, a minimum building investment of around $15,000, considered pricey at the time, was proposed.
Homes were quickly built for families with children. In an era before school children were bussed, many Kensington parents whose children now attended St. Mary’s requested that a new bridge be built across the coulee for easier school access.
Mayor Veiner considered the new bridge a “necessity” in view of the number of Kensington students. On March 10, 1958, the 200-yard footbridge was officially opened. Prefabricated in Calgary by Dominion Bridge, the structure cost around $20,000 ($210,000 today).
The bridge which now connected Kensington to St. Mary’s was well received by teachers, parents, and students. Early on, the bridge became a fun site for initiating St. Mary’s Junior High School newcomers who were encouraged to clean the bridge with toothbrushes! And there is a story that a 14-year-old Kensington lad once drove a VW van across the five-foot-eleven-inch-wide bridge. Truth or tall tale?
Today, the bridge is popular with dog walkers, bicyclists, and neighbours out for a breath of fresh air.
Sally Sehn is a past Member of the Heritage Resources Committee, City of Medicine Hat
