School Name History
Location
2580 Stanley Street, Abbotsford, BC
Opened
1967
The School
On January 18, 1967, a small two-classroom school was opened on a former poultry farm owned at one time by Bill and Harold Hill-Tout. As a pioneer family, they had cleared the land, planted and harvested wheat, and fed the wheat to their chickens. The new school was to be used as a school and community centre with the grounds to be used as a park and playground for children in the community. Mary Ten-Broeck attended the official opening of the school.
The school was at first only a primary school. In 1977 the school catchment area was expanded and a new wing was added. Another wing was added in 1992. Over the years the school grew to almost three hundred students (as of 2023) in Grades K-5.
Origin of the Name
The school was named in honour of Mary (Mollie) Ten-Broeck. She was a Primary Supervisor in the Abbotsford School District for seventeen years. She also worked as a remedial teacher, reading consultant, and primary consultant. She helped develop a primary program for the province.
Mary Ten-Broeck (1900-1996)
Mary (Mollie) Ten-Broeck was born Mary Hutchinson on May 9, 1900, in Hartney, Manitoba--a small town two hundred sixty kilometres from Winnipeg.
When she was a child, her parents moved to Vancouver where she finished her secondary education and then enrolled in teacher training. She also attended the University of Western Washington and specialized in reading remediation.
She taught in North Vancouver for sixteen years before moving to Ruskin in the Fraser Valley. She was a substitute teacher in Mission at many of the area schools as well as St. Mary’s Residential School.
Mr. William Grant, the Abbotsford Superintendent Oof Schools at the time, offered her a job in 1949. A year later she was given the position of Primary Supervisor. She stayed in the job until her retirement at age sixty-six. During her time with the district, she worked as a remedial teacher and reading consultant in addition to serving as the Primary Supervisor. She was also involved in the development of the primary program for the province. After her retirement she moved to North Vancouver. She came back to Abbotsford the next year for the opening of the school named in her honour. At the official ceremony she was praised for her dedication not to only to the district schools but to the provincial primary program. It was said that the secret to her success in education was “her love of children.”
Mary Ten-Broeck died in 1996.
The Abbotsford School District graciously acknowledges the Abbotsford Retired Teachers Association for collecting the histories and stories of our schools as part of their "What's in a name?" 50th-anniversary project.
Image courtesy of The Reach P21727