LINTLAW — The Lintlaw-Okla School has been long closed down but recently found a new purpose when Bryce Murray and Lynn Verbeek of Lintlaw purchased the building last year. The sole original purpose was to be used for a shop for Bryce and a place for her growing business, Olivia Mae Aesthetics.
The building is now known as the Lintlaw Community Hub and also houses Canada Post, Raschelle Steppan in physiotherapy, acupuncture and dry needling, Janice Nelson with Mini Mani’s nails, and Makayla Demetrow with Tiny Tattoos.
The couple recently hosted an open house along with a Sip and Shop for two other businesses in Lintlaw on Oct. 19. The other two businesses that were also featured were Brooke’s Café and Thyme to Heal, Wellness Salon by Alicia Guy. Brooke’s Café served up hot refreshments. At all three locations, there were local vendors displaying their products. Featured were Saskapaca, DJ Guns, Country Fresh Baking and Preserves, Karen’s Homemade Heaven Chocolates and baking from This Little Piggy Home Bakery.
Olivia Mae Aesthetics offers a complete health and wellness package from deep face cleaning, pedicures, foot care, lash and brow tint, permanent make-up, full body and face waxing and teeth whitening.
The revitalization process of the building was slow, with the couple only renovating four rooms but soon realizing they needed to renovate more due to the popularity of the area and rental possibilities. “The response has been overwhelming through well wishes and support,” said Lynn.
Lintlaw Village School opened in 1921, a pretty wooden building with two gabled front entrances on a small hill at the west end of town, according to information given by Alvena Oryszczryn, past school teacher.
As little one-room country schoolhouses—some dating back to 1909—chartered on five-cent-an-acre local education taxes, Lintlaw Village took in new students from Heatherbank, Saskatchewan Valley, Hazel Bloom, Arden Leigh, Glendariff, Lintlaw Rural, May, Oxford Centre, St. Eutrope and Stove Creek, eventually reaching the post-war point at which the school needed more classroom space. The new eight-room, two-storey school, a stucco-sided block of a building, opened in 1954.
The 1980s appeared to be the best of times both for the school and the community. The relative prosperity of grain growing in the 1970s had boosted confidence. Young farmers with growing families bought land and built homes. The school expanded with a classroom addition and a gymnasium.
In 1986, the old two-storey main part of the Lintlaw-Okla School was destroyed in an overnight fire. It was rebuilt but was forced to close in 2006 due to declining enrolment. Students were then bused to Kelvington. Students from Grades 10-12 were already being bused, as the Lintlaw School was only a Kindergarten to Grade 9 school.
