A 1960s Richmond public school turned private school is once again a public school.
Harry Eburne elementary, known in recent years as Pythagoras Academy, is once again in the ownership of the Richmond School District.
Historical documents show that a referendum was held in 1960 to borrow about $2 million so that the school district could buy 14 school properties and build and furnish 21 schools and one administration building.
The cost of buying the site for the future Harry Eburne elementary appears to be $5,350, of which $1,350 came from a provincial grant.
The cost to construct the school was budgeted at $44,000, of which $6,000 came from the provincial government.
The total cost in 1962 of $49,350 to buy the land and build the school would be about $513,000 in 2025 dollars.
Harry Eburne elementary, located on Odlin Crescent south of Cambie Road and west of Garden City Road, was disposed of by the Richmond School District into private hands in 1990. It ran as a Japanese school and later as Pythagoras Academy, which relocated last year.
Last week, the school district announced it had bought back the former Harry Eburne school for $60 million, of which $54 million was school district money and the province contributing $6 million.
The announcement stated that money from the sale of Steveston Secondary, $41 million in 2013, would be used towards the Odlin Crescent school site.
According to the city, the school was closed in 1982 because the area was becoming more industrial and had fewer residents.
Now, as City Centre becomes more dense with people living in condo towers, many of the nearby schools are bursting at the seams.
The area just north of the former Harry Eburne elementary school is Capstan, which is currently being built out with condos.
According to documents from the Land Title office, the value of Harry Eburne elementary was $5.67 million in 1990. In 2025 dollars, this is just under $12 million.
But instead of a cash sale, the property was exchanged for three properties. One became Anderson elementary and another became the site of MacNeill secondary.
The Land Title documents are dated Aug. 22, 1990 and are signed by Ken Morris, who served as the Richmond School District’s secretary-treasurer from 1987 to 2010.
In 1987, there were 350 portables at Richmond schools.
"My primary purpose (in 1987) was to figure out how to get kids out of portables," Morris told the Richmond News.
The decision to dispose of Harry Eburne elementary was based largely on its location.
Morris concurred with the city about the area becoming more industrial and less residential with fewer students.
But he also pointed out the school was located under a flight path — and air traffic was increasing every year — and it was close to the busy arterial Garden City Road.
Having students walk from the Tomsett area across Garden City Road “didn’t sit well with the board,” Morris said.
School properties acquired before 1960 were often gifted to the school district, for example, by a farmer, or they were bought with money raised by Richmond taxpayers.
Therefore, any sales of these properties were to go into a capital reserve account to be used at the discretion of the board of education, Morris explained.
If the school district sells land that was bought after 1960, the money goes to Victoria.
Harry Eburne elementary, however, wasn't sold; rather, it was disposed of in a land swap for the three other properties.
It appears the new owner, Rec Holdings, severed three properties off the Harry Eburne elementary site, and a church and parking lot were built on two, while another one appears to be an empty lot.
The Richmond School District plans to open the school in the fall of 2026.
Who was Harry Eburne?
Harry Eburne was born in Coventry, England, in 1855. He immigrated to British Columbia with his foster parents in 1875.
Eburne farmed in the late 1800s on an island known both as "Eburne Island" — named after him — and "Anderson Island." The water between three islands — Eburne Island, Twigg Island (also known as Bell's Island) and Mitchell Island — were filled in to create what is now present-day Mitchell Island.
Farming, however, wasn't Eburne's preferred metier, and he decided in 1881 to open a store across from Sea Island on the Vancouver side of the north arm of the Fraser River.
The store served both South Vancouver and Richmond residents.
When bridges were built across the north arm of the river, Eburne moved his store to Sea Island.
He ran a post office at his store, known as the Eburne Post Office. Due to the success of his store, the area on both sides of the river was generally called Eburne.
Eburne sold his store in 1898, and he took up chicken farming on the Vancouver side of the river.
"It was to the regret of many old-time residents of the area that the name of Eburne was changed to Marpole in 1916," reads an account of his life written for the opening of Harry Eburne elementary in 1962.
Eburne passed away in 1924.
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