Celebrating 100 years

Three generations of a family remembered the goods times for a school during its centennial celebration Wednesday.

Guido Tocheri first attended St. Martin School in 1938. Since then, his children and grandchildren have also attended. The school, now across from St. Agnes church, celebrated 100 years since it first opened in 1910. The school went through a number of renovations, was demolished and then rebuilt at a new location in 1998.

Tocheri’s older brother first attended the school in 1926 and soon his other siblings followed suit. Tocheri worked in realty and had five children, all of whom attended the school.
Now retired, he said six of his 10 grandchildren have attended.

"The school has a lot of history in the Tocheri family," he said. "When I was asked to come down here to say something about the past they were all good thoughts. This school has certainly been good to our family."

Tocheri said he remembered when the school had nuns as teachers and how he rode the streetcar to get to school. He said he knew one day he would be celebrating the 100th anniversary and considered St. Martin one of the old familiar landmarks of Westfort.

"It is still the same St.Martin even though it moved and everything else," he said. "It has been at this corner for a 100 years, which is pretty satisfactory."

Barbara VanHatten, St. Martin School’s current principal said the original school had one principal, one teacher and one custodian and originally stood at the corner of Brown and Mary Street. The original school also offered Grade 1 to Grade 8.

Since then, the school evolved to include 37 teachers and 660 students from Kindergarten to Grade 6.

VanHatten said St. Martin is the oldest school in the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board. The original school building was added to over the years but was later demolished. The board built a new school west of the original location.

"We’ve had families that have had relationships with this school for years and years and years," she said. "They’ve come here, their children have come here and their children’s children have come here. There are two schools in Westfort and I think the success has been the strong sense of community."

VanHatten said they plan to host a full day of celebrations on Thursday.

The school will host a community mass at 9:30 a.m. and festivities at St.Agnes Church at 6:30 p.m. followed by an open house at the school.