Bricks from Connaught School mark new entrance to Cathedral neighbourhood

Bricks from the demolished Connaught School now mark the entrance to the Cathedral neighbourhood.

They form a new planter and sitting area around a tree at the corner of Albert Street and 13th Avenue called ‘Rassembler’ which means ‘to gather.’

“We salvaged these bricks out of the city dump as a means to show that we should value good materials and historic materials and try to make reuse of them,” said Trish Elliott, coordinator of the Connaught brick and stone reclamation project.

The 102-year-old school was torn down after structural issues were discovered and it was deemed unsafe.

“This was a bit of a wind-swept and barren corner and now we have something nice that reflects the heritage of our neighbourhood,” said Elliott.

Five pallets of material from the old school was collected from the dump in 2014. Some of it is also being used in the new school, while a third project is in the works.