The Weedon Pioneer Community Association, known as Weedon Hall, is located on the southwest corner of Highway 22 and Highway 567.
This building has been the hub of the community for over 50 years, but this is not where the building was originally located.
The Weedon School was built on a two-acre site 10 miles north of Cochrane on land donated by W.H. Webb, and Mr. and Mrs. Jim Andison erected the building with a lot of help from area residents.
There was a meeting held at the Weedon School Nov. 19, 1949 to organize a community club in the Weedon District (named by J. Kenneth Hammond after his home village in England), which came to be realized Feb. 23, 1950 when the name “Weedon Pioneer Community Association” was registered as a society.
The Weedon School was then sold to the association for $300. So, this has been an official association serving our community for 65 years.
The school, including the barn and outhouses, were sold to Heritage Park in 1964 for $1,000. The original Weedon School was built in 1908 and as Heritage Park was looking for buildings built prior to 1914, it was well suited for the park in Calgary.
A new building was now needed. Beaver Dam School, located 1.5 miles south of Madden was purchased for $300 and the cost of the move was $400, plus $20 for moving telephone and power lines. Permission was received from Rocky View County to place it on the Cochrane Lakes School grounds, however, the people involved felt it should be near a main road, preferably at an intersection for easy access. Stan Wilson came through to donate part of his land, where the Weedon Hall sits today.
At this point, I would like to thank Patsy Parker and her mother, Pearl Parker, who have been very much involved with the community association most of their lives, for helping me put this rather complicated and often misunderstood story together.
Patsy has always had a passion for history, stating, “I love all types of history, especially Cochrane and Alberta history. North American history interests me as well. I read all the history books I can get my hands on.”
Pearl has lived here for 60 years and has many humorous stories to tell; one of which is how they raised the money needed to move the Beaver Dam School: “Besides the kids picking up bottles in the ditches along the roads and some donations from people, I decided we could put on a play to raise money. The setting was a western farm in the early 1930s, with a hired man, (who was played by my husband). The actors were regular farm people from our area. We travelled cross-country to different schools with that road show, from Westbrook School to Millarville, to Red Deer Lake. Don Truss, principal of Westbrook School, kept track of the money and, in the end, we had raised $500 to finance the move of our new school.”
There were many changes, renovations and additions made to the building over the years. In 1970, water, sewer, plumbing, new kitchen, new gas stove, furnace and washrooms were added. From 1978 to 1988, Wendy Butters organized and taught Happytimes Playschool there. Everyone loved ‘Miss Wendy.’
More improvements were made in 1986 and 1997. Major renovations were also done in 2006 and 2007 with another new kitchen, a new bar, carpets, deck and ramp.
It took many volunteers and generous donators to keep this building current and up to standards, and I wish there was room to mention them all. However, you know who you are and a heartfelt thanks go out to all of you.
The community hall has been used for many functions throughout the years: weddings, christenings, funerals, family reunions, elections, 4-H clubs, Christmas parties, Halloween parties, garage sales, bake sales and more recently, church services, wedding showers, fitness and yoga classes.
