INUVIK
The walls came tumbling down May 2 at one of Inuvik's last standing original landmark buildings.

Jodie Maring was one of the former students at Sir Alexander Mackenzie School who attended its demolition on May 2. She was upset to see the landmark building come down. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

The long-anticipated demolition of Sir Alexander Mackenzie School (SAMS) started at about 10:30 a.m., and continued through the day.

The school, which was built around 1959, according to Inuvik-Twin Lakes MLA Robert McLeod, has been closed since the new East Three school opened nearly two years ago.

It has a mixed history within the town, based on which generation of people attended it.

Originally, SAMS was a federal school, where town residents and students from the residential school programs and other areas mingled and were educated. That's the generation that seems to have mixed emotions about the site and its associations with the residential school system.

Later, it focused mostly as an Inuvik-based school, and many people from that period until it closed clearly have fond memories of it.

McLeod said he understood the ambivalence. He began attending the school about a decade after it opened, and he said he briefly lived in Grollier Hall in approximately 1969 for a few months but didn't understand fully what some students were going through at the time.

He and Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Alfred Moses spent much of the morning reminiscing about the school, as did many other spectators.

The two men pointed out various classrooms they attended, and readily remembered where the principal's office was located and some of the people who worked there.

"I was only sent to the office on occasion," Moses hastened to explain.

McLeod also showed the Inuvik Drum some old class photos from his years at the school. He remembered well how the classes were integrated between the town residents, the residential school students, and others from out of the region. However, he also remembered that Protestant and Catholic students were separated.

He was saddened to see the school being town down.

"It's a part of history, and I'm sad to see it come down, but I know there was no choice," McLeod said. "We're losing a great piece of history here. It's mixed memories. We had no idea of what a lot of people were going through."

Efforts were being made to save a wooden beam uncovered in the school that had numerous names of former students carved into it, he said.

He was particularly disappointed to see the school's gym couldn't be saved, since it was a well-constructed room that played an important part in Inuvik's social and school history.

Jodie Maring, who now works for the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, said tearing down the school was an emotional moment for her.

"There are mixed feelings," she said. "I understand they couldn't keep it up, but I would have liked to see it stay up, as in Inuvik there are no more original buildings here or only a few. This one should definitely have stayed up. It's SAMS, and a lot of people went here."

Maring said she headed for the school site as soon as word started to trickle out that the demolition was beginning. No public announcement had been made, but it didn’t take long for the news to spread. A steady stream of people were on hand to witness the last hours of the school.

"I wanted to experience it as I was part of the school from Kindergarten to Grade 6," Maring said. "I grew up with this school. There are so many memories. We used to play hide and seek in the library, because there were so many hiding spots."

"You don't see buildings like this any more," she said. "You see cookie-cutters now. This building had lots of secret hiding spots. The structure of the building is what I remember and what I'm going to miss."