Jan 15, 2013

Medicine Hat High School

I had some entertaining flashbacks walking around MHHS, Medicine Hat's largest high school, and the place I graduated from in 2002.  I couldn't find the date on when the original high school (the north portion) was built, but the major addition of the Vocational High School (all of the south end) came in 1962. Naturally, there have been continued renovations and upgrades since then.  

The north portion served as both the high school and the initial location of the Medicine Hat College before they moved to their own campus in 1971.  Today, even after 10 years, MHHS doesn't look any different than I remembered it.



MHHS has over 1300 students from grade 9 to 12, and it was actually a pretty nice place to go to school.  The familiar scenes had me reminiscing.  I couldn't help but think about how much time has passed, how much I've done since high school, and how some of my ambitions have unfolded.  I often regret not being anywhere near the shutterbug back then that I am today, but it's kind of amazing how a location sparks those memories for you anyway.

High school is a pretty defining moment, and because of that I think these images will spark something different for each person who went here.  For me, the location reminds me of how naive I really was, how I was just learning what I wanted to do, and how I felt stuck at the time.  Because of that, returning to the school to photograph it was kind of liberating in some ways as it made me realize how the things I stressed about then have almost entirely resolved themselves. The memories I have of this place now are almost all positive ones. I think they call that growing up.

See my summer images of MHHS here.



High School construction ca. 1962





High School construction ca. 1962















J. Stevenson Associates - High School Design



























School construction ca. 1962










Vocational High School ca. 1970s



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