Mahone Bay Old School_A Life and Times_Bob Sayer

and it crashed onto the teacher’s desk, making her jump. Angry and startled,
she approached him, yelling, and gave him a slap. Arriving home for lunch,
he decided to quit.
• The bell started ringing and his mother told him to get moving or he would
be late. He told her he was finished with school and was not going back. By
his sixteenth birthday he was in the merchant navy. The bell was his last
school memory.
The Bell was Mischief Time for Bobby Mader
Over the years the bell became a prime target for Halloween pranks, and the
school authorities kept the place under surveillance. The installation of the
metal exterior fire escape in 1945-6 gave a golden opportunity.
• Bobby and some friends crept up the steps in early darkness and from
the top of the fire escape were able to attach a rope to the bell. At midnight,
hidden at a safe distance from the building, the tricksters started tolling
the bell. The police, janitor and some teaching staff arrived at the double.
Lights were put on and the building was thoroughly searched. The security
forces were confounded by the fact the bell was ringing as they arrived. They
were sure nobody had escaped from the building, but the ringers could not
be found even after a search that included the roof. Phantoms of the night!
Bobby and friends were amazed the rope had not been spotted. They
had to go back in the early hours to retrieve it.
• On another Halloween, Bobby remembers a group of young adults plotted
successfully for the bells of the school and all the town churches to be rung
simultaneously.
The Battle to Remove The Old Pre 1914 School Building
Mr. W.H. S. Zwicker is Stubborn and Procrastinates. The New Town School
Board Threatens To Sue
No these are not newspaper headlines, but they might well have been.
• Under the powers granted in the 1914 Act, Section 6, the trustees had sold
the old school building to the powerful, wealthy and influential W. H. S.
Zwicker, owner of the big store, and hall across the road, on Main Street. He
was the brother of MLA Claimonte Zwicker.
• The trustees had removed what they wanted from the old building and sold off
bits and pieces. Warren Eisenhauer had purchased the old fire escape for $49.75.
Then Mr. Zwicker had been sold the old building on condition that he had it
removed. When the new school was completed, the old building was still there, encroaching
on the school’s limited lot. The building was still there two years later.
• The first signs of uneasiness and loss of patience are recorded in the minutes
of the March 6th 1917 annual meeting of the ratepayers of the school section:
‘Some discussion regarding the old building followed… the meeting was of the
opinion that forcible means were unnecessary as Mr. Zwicker was expected to
remove it or tear it down in a short time.’
•Good intentions proved fruitless. A year later, the building was still there.
The annual meeting of March 4th 1918 ‘directed the trustees to see that the
old school building be removed by Mr. W. Zwicker.’
• Trying to Get a Deadline: Another year’s delay and procrastination, led to
the new Board of School Commissioners passing the following motion at
its June 23, 1919 meeting: Moved by Comm. Nicol; sec. by Comm Begin: ‘The
Secretary interview W. H. S. Zwicker the owner of the Old School Building and get
from him a written statement that the building will be removed by Aug. 1st 1919’
It’s interesting to note that the movers of the motion were two ‘big guns,’
industrialist T.G. Nicol and ‘founding father,’ Charlie Begin
• There is no record of whether or not Orren Joudrey the new Town Clerk and
School Board Secretary was able to pin Mr. Zwicker down to a written commitment.
Probably not.
Moving The Wing of the Old School
• It is known that, later in 1919, Mr. Zwicker sold the wing [a west wing]
to James Younis, who had it removed down the hill to what is now 42 Pond
Street. The house [see photo on next page] still retains much of its original
design: Greek Revival style with its six over six windows, gabled front with
inward turns, hooded molding over the front door, and the lintel across the
second storey to carry the weight.
School Students Watch Master Mover-Rigger, “Tom” [Freeman] Mader
Fred Mosher and other students watched the moving process with fascination
and respect for master mover and rigger Freeman [“Tom”] Mader.
It’s an extraordinary story of oxen power, pulleys, jacks and blocks. The hill
was, and still is, steep with a small cliff on one side.
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