Glebe Collegiate Institute
212 Glebe Avenue
Written by Bytown Museum
on
03/Dec/2009
Opened in 1922 as the “Ottawa Collegiate Institute, Glebe Building,” the school owes much of its early enrollment to the Adolescent School Attendance Act of 1919. The act stipulated that school attendance was compulsory until the age of 16 (instead of 14), which led to a dramatic increase in secondary school enrollment. The Ottawa Collegiate Institute (now Lisgar Collegiate Institute) outgrew its capacity and a new facility on the outskirts of town was constructed. The two institutes would quickly become rivals, a rivalry that exists to this day.
Today, the Glebe Collegiate Institute is one of the largest secondary schools in Ottawa with close to 1,500 students, or “Gryphons,” enrolled annually. Famous Glebe alumni include Peter Mansbridge, Alanis Morissette and Luba Goy.
Did you know that “collegiate institutes” were considered a superior form of high school, with better equipment and specialised teachers?
Neighbourhood
Like the rest of Ottawa, the area that would become known as the Glebe was originally a hunting territory for Anishnabe (Algonquin) tribes, principally the Odawa, whose name is commemorated ... read more
