Before the Penage Road Community Centre was a community centre, it was a schoolhouse known as School Section #3 Louise. The school was first opened in 1918 at a different location (near Northern Legacy Horse Farm). A log farmhouse had been built. However, the owner soon found out he had built on the wrong side of the property line and the building was sold as a meeting hall. The hall was then abandoned and later used as the school. When S. S. #3 first opened, the students spoke only Finnish and the teacher spoke only English. This made teaching a difficult task. The teacher changed often with most not staying for a full year. In January of 1923, the school burnt down one night. Some people in the area suspected it had been done on purpose to force the school board to move the school to a more convenient location.
As a temporary location for the school, a room was rented in John Luukkonen’s home (along the river at the beginning of Grassy Lake Road). Work began on the new school and construction of the new building was completed on February 29th of 1924 with classes beginning in the spring. This is the building that is now the Penage Road Community Centre. In 1935, a cottage (known as the Teacherage) was built so teachers and their families would have a convenient place to live. The Teacherage was a 3 room frame structure and Anthony Zettler and his family were the first to use it. The school had no building foundation and so in 1937 it was raised and a cement basement was poured underneath. The building now had a large basement, hardwood flooring, slate boards, indoor toilets, moveable desks, and a piano. In 1941, a furnace was installed in the school and an addition was added to the Teacherage. In the fall of 1942, a garage was added to the woodshed. S. S. #3 even had Angora rabbits and a goat at one point.
School Section #3 Louise closed its doors in 1964 with 19 students and Hilda Cullen as the last teacher. School buses had started to run in the Whitefish area allowing students to attend larger schools in Sudbury. The building became the Penage Road Community Centre in 1966. The building is now used for various community activities including voting, dances, Women’s Institute meetings, earth day clean-up, rentals, ice skating, Rendezvous (Christmas craft sale), and many more.
Bonus fact: a little further down Penage Lake Road, at the corner of Grassy Lake Road, there is a light blue house. This house used to be a General Store opened in the 1930’s by the Koivikko family. The store closed during World War II and was reopened in 1945 by Paul Salminen.
*** Cache has been placed with permission from the Penage Road Community Centre ***
