General – Page 6 – SaskUrbEx Blog

Immaculate Heart High School

Apr 122011

Arilem spent her summer in Estevan in 2010 and it didnt take her long to locate the abandoned Immaculate Heart High School. About a year ago I got the opportunity to meet up with her and explore the old school. I have explored countless one and two room schools throughout the province but never had the opportunity to explore a larger more modern school.

The school has been closed for the better part of a decade and is currently stripped and being converted into condos so the days of exploring the place have passed. The school itself had a fire at least once however it appears to have been long ago as you couldnt smell anything but there is lots of smoke damage in various places. It appears the school was built at a time when money was tight because pretty much every corner that could be cut during design and construction was cut. It is a very plain design with virtually nothing interesting about it. I noticed too that they didnt install suspended ceiling in any of the school the roof was just painted rafters with lighting and ventilation hung on the rafters. Even the walls were just painted cindercrete blocks. The school appears to have very poor ventilation systems as well and I am sure the cheap construction played a role in this schools short service life.

I have yet to post this location due to the fact that I was very disappointed in the quality of my photos, however with Arilems expert assistance I was able to salvage a few photos that are worth showing.

This spring has resulted in us having great difficulty in getting out to locations due to the heavy snow pack that we had and now we are sidelined due to flooding throughout the province. So I have been digging into the archives to share some locations or revisit some old ones while we wait for the opportunity to get out exploring again.

School 1
About the only decent photo of the exterior

School 2
Classroom – talk about plain and cheap. Note the ceiling and walls.

School 3
The computer boneyard in the basement

School 4
The gym

School 5
This one shows where a fire was set.

School 6
The remains of what appears to be a music / fine arts area with smoke damage.

Hunters Paradise Motel

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Mar 282011

Arilem and I had gotten up really early one day last fall to make it to a large location that we had been interested in seeing. We spent about 3 hours in the location before we decided we had seen as much as we could and moved on. We were in a rather desolate area of Manitoba on a Sunday and were looking for some lunch. The town we were in had nothing to offer so we started heading east towards a larger town where we hoped to find something to eat. We drove the entire town and only found a small run down Chinese restaurant open, and we decided that if we wanted to eat that this is all we had available. Much to my surprise the food was very good and with full stomachs we decided to see what else we could find before we made the drive home. As we drove around town we stumbled across a small abandoned motel on the side of the highway just outside of town.

Motels like this were once very common however there arent many around like it anymore. It was far from anything fancy, consisting of about a dozen rooms that all opened up onto the parking lot and they were connected to the main office which also was the residence for the owner. It appears to have been abandoned close to 10 years and it appears that structural issues may have played a role in its closure. The floor had collapsed near the back of several of the rooms and even had plants growing in some of them. For the most part the rooms were complete with furniture, beds, and even bedding still and the only obviously missing thing was the televisions.

It was definitely not the most exciting place we ever saw but it was interesting none the less. I hope you enjoy it. There will be another update in a day or two.

Motel 1
The Motel had a neet sign with parts that appear to be neon

Motel 2
A view of the portion of the motel with the office on the end

Motel 3
A bed with bedding and one without – I wonder were the bedding went

Motel 4
Desk with heater beside it

Motel 5
Fancy couch in the signle rooms and a bible on the shelf

Motel 6
Where the MTS phone once resided

Motel 7
Front Desk in the office

Motel 8
Stickers on the door to the office

Motel 9
Another view of the front of the motel looking away from the office

Rural Railway Station in Nowhere Sask

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Mar 222011

In early December Arilem and I were exploring in east-central part of the province when we stumbled across an old railway station. This location is about as far off the beaten path as one could get. The rail line that it was on has been abandoned for more than 30 years, there is no highway going to this hamlet nor is there even a paved road to take you there. I dont even recall a sign on the nearest highway indicating its presence. This hamlet is little more than a name on the map.

One might think that a railway station wouldnt be very rare in this province due to the thousands of them that once existed. Passenger rail service to most small communities ended in the early 1970s and being owned by the railways most of them were shuttered at the time. Over the years some have been acquired by the towns and turned into museums or visitor information centres. Many have been torn down over the years leaving ones that are abandoned in their original condition very rare

We had to walk a fair distance in deep snow to get to the building and we were starting to run out of daylight. I didnt get a lot of good shots of the place due to the temperature and lighting but it is an interesting piece of Saskatchewan history just sitting rotting in a field. I hope you enjoy it.

Railway Station 1