Qualicum College


Qualicum College is a former private school located in Qualicum Beach, Canada. The school was founded in 1935 and closed in 1970.

History

During the Great Depression, Robert Knight decided to open an independent boarding school, in Qualicum Beach, Canada, with the assistance of Aubrey Muskett, former headmaster of the Collegiate School in Victoria.
The Qualicum Beach School, as the academy was first known, was founded in September 1935 with nine students. It was located in a rented house during its inaugural year. In 1937, the school was relocated to a specially-designed building amid of seaside property. Knight's younger brother George, joined him in a partnership and the school was incorporated as a limited liability company.
By the early 1960s it had an enrollment of about 70 students, most of whom were boarders. But towards the end of the decade, costs increased and enrollment began to decline. In 1970 the Knight brothers closed the college.
The school's playing fields were subsequently subdivided for a housing estate; the Tudor-style main building was purchased by a group who transformed it into the Qualicum College Inn.
In the mid-1970s, the Inn was the main location for It Happened at Lakewood Manor, a made-for-television film that premiered in December 1977.
The hotel owner had sought permission to redevelop the property as a 90-unit residential condominium in 2007 but the application was withdrawn. Demolition of additions to the building added in the 1970s began in January 2008.
In 2010, the Aboriginal Issues Press at the University of Manitoba published a history on the school.
By 2011, developers began to convert the hotel and surrounding property into Qualicum College Heights, a complex of 40 condominiums.