Old Sun Boiler Room

“If these schools are to succeed, we must not have them too near the bands; in order to educate the children properly we must separate them from their families. Some people may say this is hard, but if we want to civilize them we must do that.” – A Federal Cabinet Minister, 1883

Heating, Water and Plumbing

While there have been technological updates and modernization of the utilities, the boiler room retains much of its original appearance since its operation as part of Old Sun Indian Residential School.

Students at the school were responsible for tasks related to the operation of the school such as laundry, washing dishes, harvesting food from the gardens, serving staff meals, taking care of livestock, and shoveling coal. Children working at these tasks would be assigned them both as daily living chores but also as punishments like having to clean the floor with a toothbrush, which as Mandel Old Woman recounts was a task given to students as young as the age of four years old. Other punishments included locking children up in isolated rooms or in remote areas of the school, likely including the boiler room.

While most of the boiler room at Old Sun is one area, the coal room is separated by a thick steel door, which is original to the 1932 construction of the school. Engraved on the door is a variety of graffiti from children who were in attendance of the school, including names, pictures, and dates that are legible as far back as the 1930s. This door provides a physical connection to the Old Sun residential school and the experiences survivors had while in attendance.

Fire Hazards and Protection Methods

Archival documents reveal that fires were all too common at many Indian Residential Schools. The original Old Sun School at Siksika, for example, was constructed largely of wood and was lost to fire in June 1928. In this instance, Government investigators determined that the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion within the diary and storage cellar spaces within the building. In other schools, fires originated in basement boiler rooms where coal was burned to heat water as part of the hydronic heating systems. Other high-risk locations included kitchens and laundry areas.

Old Sun Indian Residential School (brick version) suffered its first fire within a year of its completion (1931). A fire caused by a defective heating element in one of the boilers had resulted from a small explosion. Investigators noted that the boilers in the basement of Old Sun were unmonitored at the time of the incident, suggesting that it could have been prevented. A second incident involving boilers occurred in 1947 and required an extended holiday break for students as repairs had to be undertaken to restore heat and hot water to the building. Rather than address the recurring mechanical issues with the boilers, the superintendent investigating the incident approved a night watchman to keep an eye on the boilers.

Many residential schools were located in remote rural areas and therefore were not easily served by municipal fire departments. As a result, the suppression of school fires required easy access to well-maintained fire extinguishers and dependable sources of water. Unfortunately, Government documents reveal that cost-cutting measures prevented many identified fire hazards from being addressed, placing students at significant risk.

To keep students safe, dormitories and classrooms required unobstructed fire routes to exterior stairways (fire escapes). However, there were no national standards in Canada requiring the installation of fire escapes for most of the residential school era. Instead, contractors took it upon themselves to make recommendations about when and where fire escapes should be installed. The general rule of thumb was that fire escapes should be fitted above the second floor of large multi-story buildings.

Water Quality and Quantity

Well water quality and supply issues were well documented problems at all three of the schools preserved in this archive. At Old Sun, emergency repairs to well pumps and valves were required approximately one year after the school had opened. In October and November of 1932, reports indicate that the school was left without water for several hours. While well pumps proved to be a constant source of trouble, hydrological investigations revealed that a drop in the water table combined with an inlet pipe that had been laid incorrectly meant that major repairs were necessary. Even after repairs were undertaken, the supervising engineer reported that well tests indicated that only 2/3 of the water necessary for daily operation of the school were being produced. In some cases, it appears that water was withheld by some residential school administrators as a means of controlling and exercising power over the children.

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This image includes modern images of the boiler room. If anyone has historic photos of the boiler room at Old Sun that they would like to submit to this archive, please contact us at irsdocumentationproject@gmail.com or submit through "Submit your Memories" button at the top of the page.

Laser scanning data can be used to create “as built” architectural plans which can support repair and restoration work to Old Sun Community College. This plan was created using Autodesk Revit and forms part of a larger building information model (BIM) of the school. The Revit drawings and laser scanning data for this school are securely archived with access controlled by the Old Sun Advisory Committee.