The first functioning entity in Guardian Angels Parish was the sixteenth Catholic school in Vancouver, built on property purchased in 1940 from Mrs. Kelly of Kelly-Douglas at the corner of Davie and Broughton Streets. The building, consisting of four classrooms, was completed by late 1941.
Cathedral rector Father John Miles, project overseer, was Master of Ceremonies when the school was blessed and dedicated by Archbishop William Mark Duke on the feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28, 1941. The school had four teaching sisters, two sisters who were school nurses and one sister who was the housekeeper and cook.
In 1946, St. Ann’s Academy on Dunsmuir Street closed, and the kindergarten class at Guardian Angels was discontinued to allow for the inclusion of the overflow from St. Ann’s grammar grades that could not be accommodated by Little Flower Academy. Enrolment at Guardian Angels then increased from 60 to 130, tapering off by 1951 to an average count of 110 pupils.
In subsequent years the attendance varied, but in the late 60s enrolment dropped from as many as 73 students to as few as 29. Father Gordon, after conferring with the Archbishop, decided that it must be closed. It had never been profitable, but the number of students now decreased each year with the increase in high-rise apartment buildings, which had a policy of ‘no children allowed’.
In 1971, a Day Care Centre was opened in the vacant building and operated for some years.
Guardian Angels Parish has had two priesthood vocations among its parishioners. Father Bruce McCormick, O.M.I., a former altar boy in this parish, was the first priest to be ordained out of Guardian Angels School. Father Marcus (Hector) Macrae, O.S.B., became a priest while a parishioner of Guardian Angels.
There is more detailed information about the school, its students and teachers in the Guardian Angels’ Fortieth Anniversary book.