School Name History

Location

32041 Marshall Rd, Abbotsford, BC

Opened

1913 as Poplar School in the 2200 block of Clearbrook Road; 1914, moved to present location on Marshall Road; 1922, another one-room building erected beside the existing school; 1933, renamed North Poplar School; 1952, current main building erected; 1999 became North Poplar Fine Arts School; 2006 renamed Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts, North Poplar Campus

The School

ASIA, North Poplar Campus has gone through many changes since the original one-room school opened in 1913 with twelve students. It moved from Clearbrook Road to its present location in 1914.  In 1922, a second building was built on the same property to accommodate the children of the mill workers. These children walked all the way from Abbotsford Lake (now Mill Lake) to the school.  A second room was added to this building in the early 1930s. It was renamed North Poplar in 1933 to distinguish it from the area’s newly built South Poplar school.

In 1952, the present main building, which includes two more classrooms, an office, a furnace room, and washrooms, was built, and two portable classrooms were brought onto the property. Thus, there were seven classrooms in total. The school expanded over the years until, in 1968, it was the largest elementary school in the district.

When Dormick Park School opened in 1977, all the primary classes moved there, leaving only grades four to seven at North Poplar. In 2000, the district's fine arts program moved from Chief Dan George to the renamed North Poplar Fine Arts School. It was now for kindergarten to grade 8 students.  In 2006, the sixth to eighth grade students moved to ASIA, Sumas Campus on Lower Sumas Mountain Road.  North Poplar was again renamed, this time as the Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts (ASIA), North Poplar Campus.

Origin of the Name

In 1897, Professor Charles Hill-Tout, a well-known anthropologist, settled in what is now called the Clearbrook area. He became successful in the lumber industry, eventually owning a sawmill on Abbotsford Lake, now Mill Lake. In the early 1900s, his son William Hill-Tout transplanted five Lombardy poplar trees from the John Maclure homestead on Matsqui Prairie. William planted them on the Hill-Tout property at the corner of King and Clearbrook Roads. The area became known as the Poplar area. When the population of the area grew large enough to need a school, the new school was name Poplar School. In 1933, a second school was built in the Poplar area. It was called South Poplar because it was south of the poplar trees planted by William Hill-Tout. The first school was renamed North Poplar because it was north of the trees.