Murrayville Elementary was built on its present site in 1911, but with the name of Belmont Superior (see the story of Belmont Elementary). The 5 acres were purchased from Owen Hughes for $1250 on March 10,1910. Mr. Hughes had to move his existing house off the property to a lot at the top of the hill.
The school was composed of two rooms and three teachers, with both elementary and high school students being taught. A temporary partition was put in Principal Montgomery’s room to provide accommodation.
The address today is 21812 – 48 Avenue, as Yale Road at this point disappeared when 48 was built.
Water was supplied from the artesian well at Five Corners and pumped up the hill to the school. Further renovations occurred in 1912 when the school was closed in order to raise the building and put a basement under it.
In 1918, the elementary school became Murrayville Elementary, and the high school section became Langley High School, which in 1922 moved to Milner and then to the site on Fraser Highway.
The school was named after the area of Murray’s Corners, later called Murrayville, which had been pioneered by the Paul Murray family in 1875. Son Billy Murray built the Travellers’ Hotel in 1887. The original Yale Road was almost up to the door of the Hotel, and continued up the hill to the Murray home and orchard and later to the school.
An addition of two rooms was made in 1922, making up the four-room school which provided classes until the major renovations occurred in the 1960s. Two well-known educators who were at Murrayville during this period were Principal Mary E. Bilton (LTA Memorial Scholarship) and Philip E. Sheffield, after whom a school in Abbotsford is named.
Norm Sherritt (age 8) remembers May 23,1928, when the Lieutenant Governor of BC, W. Randolph Bruce, and his niece, Helen MacKenzie, came up the hill in a big car with two motorcycle policemen in front. The whole school was assembled on the front grounds to meet them. The visitors came onto the grounds and signed the visitor’s book.
In the 1960s, 3 classrooms were added in an annex, plus an activity room, another classroom, and a library. In the 70s another classroom, gym and change rooms were added. In 1992, special education and computer rooms were built. In 2001, the school has 9 standard classrooms, a gym, library, 2 Kindergarten rooms, 2 special education rooms, and a computer room.
The present buildings are mainly wood-frame construction with stucco and wood siding. The new building has a plywood interior, while the old building has plaster and wood. Hot water radiation heat is used in the old building, while the new building has gas-fired warm air furnaces. Both buildings are on municipal sewer and water. There is a galvanized chain link fence around the school grounds. There are 3 swings, a climber, an adventure play structure, and asphalt play courts.
The east side has a common share with the Township’s Denny Ross Park. Mr. Ross was principal at Murrayville Elementary from 1985 to 1992. He was also a student at Murrayville during the early 40s. After retirement in 1992, he became a School Trustee, and when he passed away the park was named in his honour.
Murrayville has had two Rhodes Scholars from its student body: Edward Berry in 1916 (age 22) and Lori Ormrod in 1995 (age 22).
In 2003, Aidan Johnston entered Murrayville Kindergarten. He is the fifth generation from the Porter family, who have owned the store at Five Corners since 1917.
Murrayville in 2004 has 295 students from Kindergarten to Grade 7.
