MITCHELL, Col. James Bertram (1852-1945) served as architect to the Winnipeg School Board for nearly forty years yet no evidence can be found of his education or training in the field of architecture. Born in Gananoque, Ont. on 14 October 1852 he was educated at Ganaoque High School at the Montreal Art Insitute. He was attracted to military service at an early age, serving with troops during the Fenian Raids (1866-70) and then moving to western Canada to join the Royal North West Mounted Police (1874-77). He settled in Winnipeg in 1878 and worked as a carpenter for nearly ten years before becoming an elected member of the Winnipeg School Board in 1888. In 1893 Mitchell resigned from the Board and was appointed Architect & Commissioner of School Buildings in Winnipeg, a post he held for the next thirty-six years (Winnipeg Tribune, 25 Jan. 1893, 4). During his tenure he designed nearly fifty schools and directed the work of other Winnipeg school designers such as Samuel Hooper, James Chisholm and Charles Wheeler. Mitchell's early plans for schools were invariably based on a symmetrical three storey configuraton with a central entrance tower. By 1910 he introduced a new school prototype, generated primarily by safety concerns, based on an elongated rectangular building only two stories in height. These substantially built structures were clothed in an eclectic mixture of Romanesque and Edwardian porches, towers, gables and elaborate parapets wrapping a functional shell of classrooms, arranged along single or double-loaded corridors.
Mitchell was one of the founding members of the Manitoba Association of Architects and served as its President in 1916. During WWI he distinguished himself as commander of 100th Grenadiers Regiment and fought at Vimy and St. Eloi in France. After his return to Winnipeg he continued to design and supervise construction of schools in Winnipeg until his retirement in 1929. Mitchell died there on 14 November 1945 (obituary in the Winnipeg Tribune, 15 Nov. 1945, 2; obit. R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiii, Jan. 1946, 19; biog. in Who's Who in Western Canada, 1911, 286-7; port. and biog. in Who's Who in Canada, 1923-4, 320; Pioneers and Prominent People of Manitoba, 1925, 260-1). A publication on his life and work prepared by K.M. Haig entitled 'Colonel J.B. Mitchell: For Whom a Winnipeg School is Named' was commissioned by his wife and presented at the opening of J.B. MItchell Junior High School.
(School Buildings in Winnipeg)
SOMERSET PUBLIC SCHOOL, Sherbrook Street near Notre Dame Avenue, 1901 (Const., iii, Nov 1910, 86, illus.; Winnipeg, 1989-The Year Past, 49-50, illus.)
ALEXANDRA PUBLIC SCHOOL, Edmonton Street at St. Mary's Avenue, 1902-03; demol. 1969 (inf. R. Rostecki, Winnipeg)
PINKHAM PUBLIC SCHOOL, Pacific Avenue, 1903; burned 1945 and rebuilt (Winnipeg, 1986-The Year Past, 49-50, illus.)
CARLTON PUBLIC SCHOOL, Graham Avenue at Carlton Street, 1903-04; demol. 1929-30 (inf. R. Rostecki, Winnipeg)
STRATHCONA PUBLIC SCHOOL, McGregor Street at Burrows Avenue, 1904; addition, 1911; demol. 1963-64 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 12 Sept. 1904, 2, descrip.; Winnipeg b.p. 964, 1911; inf. R. Rostecki, Winnipeg)
JOHN M. KING PUBLIC SCHOOL, Ellice Avenue at Agnes Street, 1905; addition, 1918, demol. 1963 (Manitoba Free Press [Winnipeg], 3 April 1905, 6, illus. & descrip.; 30 Oct. 1905, Building Number, 20, illus. & descrip.; Winnipeg b.p. 420, 1918)
WELLINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL, Wellington Avenue at Beverley Street, 1906; demol. 1961-62 (inf. R. Rostecki, Winnipeg)
LUXTON PUBLIC SCHOOL, Polson Avenue at Athol Street, 1907; addition, 1915 (Winnipeg b.p. 896, 1915; inf. R. Rostecki, Winnipeg)
KING EDWARD SCHOOL NO. 1, Selkirk Avenue at Pritchard Street, 1908; demol. 1975 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 19 Dec. 1908, 26; Const., iii, Nov. 1910, 86, illus.)
MULVEY PUBLIC SCHOOL, Maryland Street at Broadway Place, 1908 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 19 Dec. 1908, 26, descrip.; Winnipeg b.p. 469, 1908)
RIVERVIEW PUBLIC SCHOOL, Maplewood Avenue, Fort Rouge, 1908 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 19 Dec. 1908, 26)
CLIFTON PUBLIC SCHOOL, Clifton Street, 1908 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 19 Dec. 1908, 26; Winnipeg b.p. 809, 1908)
CECIL RHODES PUBLIC SCHOOL, William Street at East Street, 1908 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 19 Dec. 1908, 26)
LA VERENDRYE PUBLIC SCHOOL, Jessie Avenue at Lilac Street, 1909 (C.R., xxiii, 28 April 1909, 19; Const., iii, Nov. 1910, 86, illus.)
ABERDEEN PUBLIC SCHOOL, Salter Street at Stella Avenue, 1909 (Winnipeg b.p. 1256, 1909; Winnipeg, 1989-The Year Past, 27-8, illus.)
ST. JOHN'S TECHNICAL SCHOOL, Machray Avenue at Powers Street, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 27 July 1910, 36-8, illus. & descrip.; Manitoba Free Press [Winnipeg], 22 April 1911, Magazine Section, 8, illus. & descrip.)
KELVIN TECHNICAL SCHOOL, Harrow Street at Kingsway, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 27 July 1910, 36-8, illus. & descrip.; Manitoba Free Press [Winnipeg], 22 April 1911, Magazine Section, 8, illus. & descrip.)
GREENWAY PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 1, St. Matthews Avenue at Banning Street, 1909 (Manitoba Free Press [Winnipeg], 29 July 1909, 11, illus. & descrip.; Winnipeg, 1992-93: The Year Past, 67-8, illus.)
LORD SELKIRK PUBLIC SCHOOL, Brazier Street at McIntosh Avenue, 1908; addition, 1921 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 19 Dec. 1908, 26; Const., iii, Nov. 1910, 85, illus.; Winnipeg b.p. 782, 1921)
LORD ROBERTS PUBLIC SCHOOL, Beresford Avenue at Daly Street, 1910; addition, 1919 (C.R., xxiv, 25 May 1910, 41, illus. & descrip.; Winnipeg. b.p. 1576, 1919)
NORQUAY PUBLIC SCHOOL, Lusted Avenue at Euclid Street, c. 1910 (Const., iii, Nov. 1910, 86, illus.)
DUFFERIN PUBLIC SCHOOL, Alexander Avenue, c. 1910 (Const., iii, Nov 1910, 86, illus.)
PRINCIPAL SPARLING SCHOOL, Richard Avenue at Garfield Street, 1912 (Winnipeg. b.p. 3285, 1912; Winnipeg, 1992-93: The Year Past, 69-70, illus.)
LAURA SECORD PUBLIC SCHOOL, Wolseley Avenue, 1912-13 (Manitoba Free Press [Winnipeg], 17 Aug. 1912, 25, illus. & descrip.; Winnipeg, 1985: The Year Past, 61-2, illus.)
CLIFTON PUBLIC SCHOOL, Clifton Street, 1913 (C.R., xxvii, 19 March 1913, 75, t.c.)
ISSAC BROCK PUBLIC SCHOOL, Barratt Avenue, 1913 (Winnipeg b.p. 753, 1913)
EARL GREY PUBLIC SCHOOL, Cockburn Street, 1914 (C.R., xxviii, 13 May 1914, 199; Winnipeg, 1981: The Year Past, 25-6, illus.)
GEORGE V PUBLIC SCHOOL, Chalmers Avenue at Union Avenue, Elmwood, 1915 (Manitoba Free Press [Winnipeg], 28 Aug. 1915, 4; Winnipeg b.p. 807, 1915)
CHILDREN'S HOME, Academy Road at Centennial Street, a school building for the Home, 1918 (Winnipeg b.p. 1083, 1918)
ANNA GIBSON PUBLIC SCHOOL, Kelvin Street at Talbot Avenue, 1919 (Winnipeg b.p. 648, 1919)
STRATHCONA PUBLIC SCHOOL, McGregor Street at Burrows Avenue, 1919 (Winnipeg b.p. 853, 1919)
GREENWAY PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 2, Banning Street at St. Matthews Avenue, 1919 (Winnipeg b.p. 1044, 1919; Winnipeg, 1992-93: The Year Past, 31-2, illus.)
CECIL RHODES PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 1, Cecil Street at William Avenue, major additions, 1920; 1922 (Winnipeg b.p. 1074, 1920; b.p. 884, 1922)
MONTCALM PUBLIC SCHOOL, Tecumseh Street at William Avenue, 1920 (Winnipeg. b.p. 1077, 1920)
MACHRAY PUBLIC SCHOOL, Mountain Avenue at Charles Street, 1921 (Winnipeg b.p. 1274, 1921)
RALPH BROWN PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 1, Machray Avenue at Church Street, 1920 (Winnipeg b.p. 1426, 1920)
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE PUBLIC SCHOOL, Shaughnessy Street at Pritchard Avenue, 1920 (Winnipeg b.p. 1581, 1920)
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN PUBLIC SCHOOL, Beaverbrook Street at Haskins Avenue, 1921; demol. 1990 (Winnipeg b.p. 1521, 1921)
DAVID LIVINGSTONE PUBLIC SCHOOL, Stella Avenue, 1922 (Winnipeg b.p. 1246, 1922)
WOLSELEY PUBLIC SCHOOL, Clifton Street at Wolseley Avenue, 1921 (Winnipeg b.p. 1587, 1921)
SIR SAM STEEL PUBLIC SCHOOL, Nairn Avenue at Green Street, 1921 (Winnipeg b.p. 2049, 1921)
LORD NELSON PUBLIC SCHOOL, McPhillips Street, major addition, 1922 (Winnipeg. b.p. 751, 1922)
GROSVENOR PUBLIC SCHOOL, Grosvenor Avenue at Wilton Street, 1922 (Winnipeg. b.p. 1573, 1922)
FARADAY PUBLIC SCHOOL, Parr Street at St. John's Avenue, 1925 (C.R., xxxix, 25 March 1925, 50)