Westgate Mennonite Collegiate (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

 school, secondary education

Westgate Mennonite Collegiate is a Christian school grounded in the Anabaptist tradition. It is the mission of the school to provide a well-rounded education that will inspire and empower students to live as people of God.

The school, the Mennonite Educational Institute (Mennonitisches Bildungsinstutut) was formed in 1958 to offer students an education that fostered the ideals that the supporting Mennonite community valued.

Classes were first held in the educational wing of First Mennonite Church, where one student mused that they were "either a throwback to the one-room school or a forerunner of an open area school." The school then moved to a vacant church building on Edison Avenue where classes in the provincial curricula, Anabaptist history and German instruction were only compromised by the limited facilities.

The school acquired the building and grounds of the Convent of the Sacred Heart on 86 West Gate in 1964. Once a prominent private residence, an educational wing had been added earlier, so there now was room for classrooms and a girls' dorm. The property's livery stable became the "Art Barn" and the adjacent yard offered more space for outdoor sports. A major capital project constructed a much-needed gymnasium, multi-purpose room and office space in 1978.

By 1989 the old "mansion" was no longer serviceable for classroom use and it had lost most of its architectural character even before it had become Westgate Mennonite Collegiate. It was replaced with a structure that offered new classrooms, computer and science labs, student lounges and a multi-purpose room that allowed the old one to be renovated into a kitchen and cafeteria.