Seeking our History will be a section aimed at presenting the community with its past, by recounting the different locations that The Mackay School has had during its 167 years of operation.
The “Old” School
It all started by closely examining the photo that most of us have seen of the “Artisan School.”
A one-story house with non-traditional architecture for 19th century Valparaíso.
This photo has a caption that says “THE NEW SCHOOL” and this was the trigger because from the previous phrase derives the question: what is the Old School?
This turned into document research and field visits, with the aim of corroborating what is indicated in the accounts of a magazine called “An Outline of its History” as well as some documents from the Anglican Church.
In this sense, it was determined that it was in the “Protestant Oratory” where the “Artisan School” began its activities, with four students. This was located on Santa Victorina Street in Cerro Alegre, now known as Lautaro Rosas Street No. 330, 25 meters from Miramar Street.
The cornerstone that allowed the discovery of the “Old School” was the visit to the “garages” mentioned in the documents.
These facilities remain with all their original structure except for the roof. At that time, this construction corresponded to the stables (Horses and mules were the means of transportation used at that time).
Felipe Figueroa & Charlie Borrowman