The Land We're On Prior to 1991
The land on which our school was built has a long history. Prior to the arrival of the Hudson's Bay Company and European settlers, the area surrounding Rogers Elementary School was inhabited, used, and cared for by the Lekwungen Peoples (also known as the Songhees & Esquimalt). This map (below) shows their traditional territory. Like us, the Lekwungen lived, learned, worked, and played in and on hills and among the trees and bushes of what we now call Rogers School.
To learn more about the Lekwungen Peoples, click here and go www.songheesnation.ca & www.esquimaltnation.ca
This is George Rogers, his wife Genevieve, and their young child. George moved to Canada from England in 1885. After spending short time in Toronto, working in a hat factory, George boarded one of the first trains to cross the continent and ended up in Victoria. He worked for a time at Medina Farm in James Bay and then as a tenant farmer at Craigie Lea Farm near Gorge and Tillicum. This experience farming led him to purchase 255 acres from the Vanalman family in 1898 and begin his own operation.
George Rogers and his family ran Chester Lea Farm, which, over the years became known as Rogers Farm. They began producing and selling milk in the 1920s and continued to do so until the 1958. The farm continued to operate under the management of one Rogers family member or another until the early 1990s. After Rogers School was built, the farm continued to operate for a few more years before being subdivided and becoming the neighbourhood surrounding our school. |
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Rogers School, in the beginning...
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Rogers in the news!
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Award-winning architecture
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