Little Flower Academy

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Little Flower Academy (a.k.a. L.F.A.) is a private Catholic school for young women in Vancouver, British Columbia. Established in 1927, by the Sisters of Saint Ann, it educates students at the secondary level between the grade of eight and twelve. It is located in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood, between Shaughnessy Elementary School and York House School.

Contents 1 Architecture 2 History 3 Official Colours 4 Mascot 5 School Song 6 Motto 7 External links

[edit] Architecture

Until 2005, when portions of the school were demolished to make room for new additions, the school's convent (a 1910 mansion) held a Guinness World Record for the most exterior windows arranged at different levels.

The 1931 library-cafeteria-art building, also destroyed, was once the original schoolhouse with boarding rooms in the attic. The schoolhouse ("Foundress Hall") was one of the few remaining examples of the architectural work of Sister Mary Osithe, an artist and pioneering female architect in BC who also designed the Bulkley Valley Hospital in Smithers, BC. (Details on Osithe may be found in Donald Luxton’s Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia (Talon Books, 2003).)

[edit] History

In 1858, five women of the Québec-based order of the Sisters of St. Ann travelled by sea to the Isthmus of Panama and up the west coast to Victoria. They set down in a small log cabin in Beacon Hill Park, and began the process of establishing Victoria's St. Ann's Academy. The Sisters' first presence in Vancouver came in 1888 (two years after the city was established) with a school on Dunsmuir, next to a cathedral and, according to an article researched by the late Sister Eileen Kelly (the last St. Ann order principal of LFA), "on the edge of a forest clearing." The Sisters wanted to expand with a boarding school to accommodate young women who lived too remotely to access existing educational facilities. The building (now destroyed) known as "The Convent" was built in Shaughnessy in 1910 for this purpose, but a Bishop by the name of Timothy Casey pulled rank and took over the Convent House for his own purposes in 1913. By 1918, Reverend Casey’s diocese had been unable to meet successive payments on the land and home, and sold six acres to the municipality of Point Grey, who desired a portion of the site to erect their own public school – today’s Shaughnessy Elementary. The ownership of the remaining property at the time reverted to the Sisters of Saint Ann, who were able to meet the payments and whose chosen school name “Little Flower Academy” began appearing in the published Vancouver Directory books. The Bishop still reigned over the estate, likely due to political and cultural norms of the day, but fled the region in 1927 due to an inability to meet increasing property taxes. Little Flower Academy was so named apparently because the prayers of one of the Sisters had been answered in acquiring the property. The prayers had been made to Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, who had the nickname “The Little Flower of Jesus.”

[edit] Official Colours

The school's official colours are maroon and white (and yellow for sports).

[edit] Mascot

The LFA Angels (sports teams) have an angel for a mascot although there is no official physical mascot. LFA is simply, the "Home of the Angels"

[edit] School Song

Hail to thee, our Alma Mater, where we spend our student days!

True to thee we will always stay, true to the memory of L.F.A.

Oh, here our hearts will e'er remain;

Here we sing this glad refrain;

And loyal praise to thee we'll pay:

All hail to L.F.A.

To fight for thee, to win our aim, on the field at every game.

Win or lose, we will always stay true to the standards of L.F.A.

We'll keep her honour clear and bright,

Ever true to maroon and white;

And loyal praise to thee we'll pay,

All hail to L.F.A.

(Created by the Class of 1940)

[edit] Motto

Ad lucem (To the light)

[edit] External links

• Little Flower Academy official site
• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver listing for Little Flower Academy
• Vancouver Courier story on the loss of LFA heritage buildings