Sea Island Elementary School

Sea Island School in 1896. City of Richmond Archives Photograph 1977 5 2. Click to enlarge image.

Sea Island School had been one of Richmond’s pioneer schools but closed in 1906. Like a "phoenix," it resurrected itself in the 1920s as a school for local cannery workers but closed again after Canadians went to war with Japan in 1941. After the war, employees of the Boeing Aircraft Company as well as returning veterans demanded an elementary school be established in the small community of Burkeville, and Sea Island Elementary School (1946- ) was opened.

Sea Island School in 2004. City of Richmond Archives Photograph 2004 43 164.

The school was named after its island location, but the term Sea Island has been attributed to Colonel Moody who was the commander of the Corps of Engineers based in New Westminster in the mid-1800s, who surveyed the land in the Lower Mainland. Before the dykes were built, the island was partially hidden by the sea at high tide. Previously, it had been called McRoberts’ Island for Hugh McRoberts, the earliest European settler on the island.