Manual Training School / Bowman Elementary / Bowman Art Centre

Manual Training School, also, Bowman Elementary, also, Bowman Art Centre. . On October 10th, 1912 the Duke of Connaught, Governor General of Canada, officially opened this building as the “Manual Training School”, the first in the Province of Alberta. Designed by architects H.M. and W.A. Whiddington, they used a combination of architectural styles, primarily Collegiate Gothic. The school was essentially a vocational school, serving as such until 1915., In 1915 the building was redeveloped as the Lethbridge High School. With the completion of the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute in 1928, the Bowman was then designated as the Bowman Elementary School, named for C.B. Bowman. He was an early Lethbridge businessman, a Lethbridge School Board member, City Councillor, Acting Mayor, City Assessor and Secretary Treasurer., Bowman Elementary School closed in 1963; the building was purchased by the City of Lethbridge and then used for a short time as a museum which later relocated and became the Sir Alexander Galt Museum. City Council and the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge came to an agreement; the Bowman Art Centre was officially opened on January 9th, 1965. First tenants were the Jolliffe Academy of Dancing, Lethbridge Sketch Club, Oldman River Potters' Guild, Lethbridge Camera Club, Lethbridge Handicraft Guild and the Playgoers Club of Lethbridge., The office of the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge remained in the building until 2006. In 2012 the Bowman continues as the Bowman Art Centre. Reflecting its provincial importance, it was one of the first buildings in Lethbridge to be designated as a Provincial Historic Resource in 1982.