The old school at St. Eugene's Mission on the St. Mary's Reserve near Cranbrook was to have been incorporated into a golf course and hotel development. I visited there first in 1995, when the development was still at the proposal stage, and was struck by the beauty of the massive old building and its dramatic siting with the Rocky Mountains in the distance. The other notable building on the reservation is the St. Eugene's Church, one of two (the other being at Moyie) built with the proceeds of a galena mine discovered by a Kootenay Indian named Pierre, assisted by the resident missionary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Father Coccola. The church was completed in 1897. I don't know the construction date of the school, but from its Mission Revival style it probably dates from 1912 or so. My understanding is that the First Nation wanted to preserve it and use part of it as a cultural interpretation centre: one quote I recall was from a local woman who said that "it was here where they attempted to take away my culture, so it is fitting that it is here I should get it back," or words to that effect.

The building is now rehabilitated and incorporated into the St. Eugene Mission golf course. There is a "backgrounder" on the economic viability of the process on the Government of Canada website.

This is an unusual residential school for the period in that it didn't use standard plans developed by Indian Affairs departmental architect Robert M. Ogilvie. Instead, a private Ottawa architect, Allan Keefer, designed it. (Source: Dana J. Johnson, Indian Affairs 1887-1962 in Building the West: the Early Architects of British Columbia, ed. Donald Luxton, 2003)

(Tom Annandale of Toby, Russell, Buckwell and Partners, the project team that worked to incorporate this building into the golf course development, gave me regular updates on the project.)