The renovations in 1905-1906 were not enough to keep up with enrolment as Galt became a city. Several more alterations, especially in 1924, resulted in the structure seen on this 1930s postcard. At that time the south assembly room was named Tassie Hall. – rych mills collection

The year 1881 marks the beginning of a new era in the history of Galt Collegiate Institute … the ‘Tassie Regime’ came to an end.”

With that, Dr. Thomas Carscadden began his personal history of GCI in 1925’s Waterloo Historical Society report. He had just completed a 43-year career as headmaster, assistant principal and principal. By all accounts Carscadden was a gentle, soft-spoken, dedicated educator. Here he detailed how the once-renowned 19th-century school had floundered during William Tassie’s later years only to be resurrected from possible closure and loss of provincial recognition since Tassie’s departure.

Although Carscadden couched his language, between the lines it’s evident that he disliked Tassie and everything the earlier headmaster had stood for in education. In 1925 (and still today) Tassie sat on a pedestal in Cambridge-Galt history — Carscadden tried to lower that pedestal somewhat. Last week’s (Jan. 26, 2019) Flash from the Past, told how Tassie rescued and made famous the failing Galt Grammar School in the early 1850s; how he then created one of the province’s major secondary schools in the later 1850s and 1860s — albeit as a boarding school for well-off boys — and how, by inflexible teaching methods and fogeyish beliefs, he essentially ran it into the ground in the late 1870s.

In 1881 things came to a head. Provincial regulations on teaching methods and requirements for full co-education had long been ignored or bypassed by Tassie. To prepare students for teaching in public schools, provincial intermediate exams were introduced in 1876 but Tassie’s reactionary methods meant very few Galt Collegiate students passed. Enrolment plunged to less than 50 by 1881 as potential teacher-students applied elsewhere. The school board had long kowtowed to Tassie’s rote style of teaching and his insistence on separate boys’ and girls’ high schools. However, with a combination of provincial resolve and townwide ultimatums to modernize his methods or leave, Tassie and his teaching staff resigned in June 1881. It was a sad end to what had once been a groundbreaking educational regime.

Galt’s high school board scoured the province for a new headmaster and at Pickering College found mathematician John Bryant who immediately selected three other teachers: Thomas Carscadden (English), D.S. Smith (classics), and Noah Quance (languages). Bryant’s progressive views meant Galt Collegiate soon added commercial and art departments plus extracurricular musical and literary societies … and all were open to girls as well as boys.

Bryant immediately made the old Tassie school on Hunter Street (now Water Street North) fully co-educational. What had been the girls’ high school on North Street (Thorne Street) was sold for $750. Also dropped was Tassie’s boarding school template: most students now came from Galt and area. Seventy pupils registered in September 1881, almost 50 per cent more than in Tassie’s final year. Because of deafness, Bryant resigned in 1884 and Carscadden began a 30-year stint as principal.

In 1881, the two-storey Tassie building was in the shape of a cross although only a small part had ever been turned into classrooms. Over the next 20 years, every conceivable renovation had maximized space. Under Carscadden, plans were developed to reinvent the building in 1905. Some sections would be torn down and a three-storey addition built with rock quarried from along the Grand River. The board requested $35,000 and Galt council’s bylaw vote passed easily.

During Easter vacation 1905, students and teachers departed the old Tassie building: over the next year-plus, town hall became Galt Collegiate. Back on Hunter Street work progressed rapidly. By August 1905, the $35,000 had run out and another $30,000 was needed. This time the bylaw was voted down; however, the high school board carried on, signing contracts and urging workers to continue. Meanwhile its members lobbied council and fanned out across town convincing voters to support a third bylaw. This time, the majority was in favour and the “new” Galt Collegiate Institute welcomed students in September 1906.

GCI has had several further renovations and additions but the 1906 three-storey structure with three sets of windows on either side of the central tower still captures the eye from Water Street North.

Thomas Carscadden’s 1925 article begins on page 134 at www.whs.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/1925.pdf.