Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute

Corporate body

Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute

1792-

Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute was founded by the Reverend John Stuart in 1792, based upon a grant given for secondary education in the colony of Upper Canada, on the orders of Governor Simcoe. The original building was a one and a half storey frame structure which was used until 1849.

While a new structure was being built, the school was housed in the present Principal's residence of Queen's University. The second building, a two storey stone structure, was completed in 1853. In 1892, the school was moved, as a result of increased enrolment, to its present location at the corner of Frontenac and Earl Streets.

Girls were first admitted as students in January 1877 and the school has remained co-educational since. The oldest remaining part of the present school is the 1915 wing, which is now the Science area, while the latest addition was completed in 1969. The Module Secondaire de Langue Française was established at K.C.V.I. in 1980, and in September 1995 became l'École Secondaire Mille-Iles, Frontenac County's (now the Limestone District School Board) first French language secondary school.

Mille-Iles is now a school in the local separate French first language board. However, KCVI still houses Module Vanier, a grades 7 and 8 French Immersion school. Among those who have attended K.C.V.I., are Sir John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister of Canada; Sir Oliver Mowat, Premier of Ontario; and George Kirkpatrick, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, who laid the 1892 commemorative stone. On November 12, 1992, a new commemorative stone was dedicated by His Excellency The Right Honourable Ramon A. Hnatyshyn, Governor General of Canada, on the occasion of the Bicentennial of Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

Draft

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