While we still are not 100% sure when the Methodist English Church was built (a shot from the churchs inside is shown with this post), archival research has brought up some interesting information on the adjacent Methodist English High School. It was started in 1881 by Miss Ellen Warner, an American national of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. It may have accepted its first pupils the year later, perhaps that’s why we often hear 1882 being given as MEHS’s founding year. The location of the school was on Lewis Street (today’s Seikkantha Street). The government of British India had donated the site, valued at Rs 1,600, and provided Rs 10,000 as a building fund, to the mission. The old painting is taken from a 1889 edition of “Heathen Woman’s Friend”, a Methodist periodical. Contrary to what is written elsewhere, we found no evidence that the school moved to its current location on Lancaster Road (today’s Nawaday Road) by 1894 already — although the school was indeed “full to overflowing” that year. The problem of space appears to have been mitigated by moving the Burmese Girls School, which used the English Girls School’s space from 1892 onwards, to a new location around 1903. The Methodists taught strictly divided by what they called “national” lines, i.e. “English” (probably commonplace for Westerners), Chinese and Burmese. The move of the Methodist English High School to its present location occurred only much later, in 1924/25. “The government offered the Methodist mission, to whom the [Lewis] site had been leased, Rs 300,000 for a relinquishment of our claim upon the property, and the offer was gladly accepted.” After the sale of the old site was completed, things went underway quickly, “and steps are already being taken to build for our girl’s school on the present boarding site at Lancaster Road”. The mission already owned the site on Lancaster Road, but there were only boarding facilities, which were torn down to make space for the new school building. By the time of the next year’s report of the mission in 1925, the new building appeared already finished and operational. Unfortunately, it was destroyed during the war in a Japanese bombing raid, so that today’s main school building dates back to the late 1940s only. Several questions remain: When was the Methodist English Church built? When were boys admitted to the school? We are hoping to close these and other gaps shortly, and look forward to any comments our readers may have!
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 03:01:47 +0000
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