School Name History

Location

33231 Bevan Avenue, Abbotsford, BC

Opened

2004, Abbotsford Junior High School was converted to middle school; 2007, old building was torn down and new building put up on the same site.

The School

The first Abbotsford Middle School opened in 2004 in the building that was built in 1955 as the Senior Secondary. It originally had sixteen classrooms, three industrial arts shops, a combination gymnasium and auditorium, a lunchroom, and administration offices. In 1966, staff and students of Abbotsford Junior High School switched buildings with the Senior Secondary people. In 2004, Abbotsford Junior High, housed in the 1955 building, became a middle school.

The Abbotsford Middle School building needed major renovations, so the School Board decided it would be best to tear it down and rebuild it on the same site. The new Middle School opened in 2007. It had nineteen rooms, a gym, a multi-purpose room, two science labs, a library, a music room, home economics and trade shops, special education spaces, and an industrial shop where students could study technical programs like such as aerospace, robotics, and alternative energies. The school featured cost-effective green measures. Low-toxicity materials, recycled materials, and some materials from the old school were used. Natural ventilation and high-efficiency heating and cooling systems saved energy. There was a greater use of natural light. 

Origin of the Name

The school is named after the community. Abbotsford was named by an early settler, John Charles Maclure. In 1888, Maclure sold the right of way through his land to the Canadian Pacific Railway. He sold the right of way on condition that they build a train station there. He named this place Abbottsford in honour of a family friend Henry “Harry” Abbott. Abbott was the western superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Originally, on maps and documents, the name was spelled with two “t”s. In 1922, there was a petition to change the spelling to “Abbotsford,” like the name of the home of a famous Scottish writer, Sir Walter Scott. In a letter from 1924, Maclure said the town was named after Harry Abbott, but still the modern spelling with one ’t' links the town’s name to Sir Walter Scott’s home.  

In 1813, Scott named his home after a nearby river crossing or ford. The crossing was called Abbotsford because the monks of an abbey used the ford to cross the River Tweed. An abbey is a religious community whose leader is called an abbot.