In the 1900s, concerns about the quality of rural education prompted the Ontario Government to build four new Normal Schools to increase the supply of qualified teachers in the province. Identical Italian Renaissance buildings were constructed in North Bay, Peterborough, Hamilton and Stratford. The Stratford Normal School attracted women and men from surrounding districts and educated them with an emphasis on conditions in the rural schools that employed most new teachers. Known as the Stratford Teachers' College before closing in 1973. It is the only one of the four Normal Schools opened in 1908-08 to survive without substantial alteration.

Location

At the southeast corner of the Stratford Normal School, Stratford

Themes

• Buildings and structures
• Education