1900: Board awarded contracts for “new building on Essex Street.” A four-roomed school for Grades 1 to 8 built west of Christie Street on Essex Street. Cost: $7,337.00. 1901 Jan: School opened with 162 pupils registered. 1901 Sept 16: At a Toronto City Council meeting, W.C. Wilkinson, Secretary Treasurer of the Public School Board, requested that “Essex Street, between Shaw and Christie Streets, be opened up and that sidewalks be laid on the north side of Essex Street, and south of Garnet Avenue.” Essex was the first school in the area, which was known as Seaton Village. (Bloor Street to the south; CPR tracks to the north; Christie Street to the west; Bathurst Street to the east.) Before that, students went to Palmerston and Dovercourt schools. 1902 Jan 2: Official opening by Alfred Jones, Chairman of the Board. 1906: Addition presumably by Charles H. Bishop. 1907: Addition presumably by Charles H. Bishop. 1912: Addition, making a total of 23 classrooms. 1915: Annex built. 1948: Department of Education, in cooperation with the Toronto Board of Education, opened an Art Centre, to determine the best teaching procedure for a modern developmental art program. 1952: Senior school established in annex. 1955: Annex damaged by fire. Third floor removed; rest of school rehabilitated. 1956: Site enlarged. 1956 July 15: New building started. Cornerstone laid November 30. 1957 July: Annex demolished. 1958 May 12: New building opened. 1977 Sept: (Hawthorne II—originally Hawthorne, a private school located at Vaughan Road and Bathurst Street— opened under the Toronto Board as its only bilingual alternative junior school in part of the Essex building.) 1989: Combined with Christie Public School to form Essex Junior and Senior Public School. (Christie had opened in November 1964 to form the junior section of Essex).