Princess May Girls State School
1900; architects: "architects from the Public Works Department, including the state’s earliest architect, James Austin; others include James Manning, John Grainger, William Hardwick and Hillson Beasley" (Heritage Council); [[../parks/princessmay.html|Princess May Park]].
Ewers:
In 1900 the girls shifted to the new school built on a site which had been reserved for the purpose in 1894. It received the name of the Princess May School in 1901, when the [[../events/george.html|Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York]] (later King George V and Queen Mary) visited Fremantle. Ewers, 109.
The Daily News, Friday 26 July 1901, p 3:
At the request of the Mayor, Her Royal Highness declared the name of the new
school at Fremantle the Princess May Girls' School. [This occurred on Victoria Quay, not at the School.]
The girls 'shifted' from the Infants and Girls School in South Terrace. The Duchess to whom Ewers refers was to become Queen Mary, consort of George V. She was actually Princess Mary of Teck, but was known in the family as May, possibly because she was born in that month. Or not. According to a Fremantle History Society newsletter, [[../fhs/newsletter/2018-05.pdf|April 2018]], the School did not take the Princess's name until 1935 [but there are two mistakes in that paragraph, page 2].
The building is at 18 Cantonment St in Princess May Park—which it shares with the Boys School and Clancy's Fish Pub—which used to be the Household Management aka Domestic Science Centre of the girls school.
Photo thanks to Steven Doig.
The building is now used by the Fremantle Education Centre, the broad mission of which is stated on its website as follows:
FEC website:
FEC is a not for profit organisation returning all our resources to the community. The Centre helps organisations and individuals to focus on their future needs and aspirations. We provide consultancy services for an eclectic array of local, national and international programs that support and improve learning. Our vision is to alleviate poverty and helplessness through being recognised as a community leader in nurturing individuals to reach their potential. Our mission is to empower individuals to contribute to community and quality of life.
References and Links
See also the long article by Joe Fisher on the [[../hotels/clancys.html|Clancys]] page.
Ewers, John K. 1971, The Western Gateway: A History of Fremantle, Fremantle City Council, with UWAP, rev. ed. [1st ed. 1948].
Silbert, Eric nd, ‘The history of Princess May Girls School’, unpublished typescript.
Fremantle Education Centre website.
There is another Princess May (primary) school: in Princess May Road, Hackney, London, N16 8DF
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 16 December, 2014 and hosted at freotopia.org/schools/princessmay.html (it was last updated on 7 June, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.