Remembering Eva Ardiel, former Schoolmistress at the Old Britannia Schoolhouse in Mississauga

Eva Ardiel was an avid and active heritage champion and a friend of Heritage Mississauga. Most notably, she was an educator at heart, the long serving schoolmistress at the Old Britannia Schoolhouse in Mississauga, and a dedicated volunteer and leader with the Friends of the Schoolhouse. Eva, who touched countless lives over the years, passed away on January 12, 2025 at the age of 94. She will be fondly remembered as a humble, quiet giant within the heritage communities of Brampton and Mississauga.

Eva was an accomplished arts educator with both the Hamilton and Peel District Boards of Education. She was a leader in immersive historical learning as the schoolmistress at the Old Britannia Schoolhouse in Mississauga. For many years, Eva was a significant contributor to Heritage Mississauga’s Heritage Showcase at Square One, which is where I first connected with her, and since that first meeting I always enjoyed and looked forward to our conversations. 

Eva Ardiel at The Credits, 2017, with the staff from the Old Britannia Schoolhouse, photo courtesy of Christine Chapel

Eva retired from The Old Britannia Schoolhouse in June of 1991, after six and a half years as schoolmistress in the historical classroom. In May 2005, the Friends of the Schoolhouse recognized Eva Ardiel’s many contributions to the Friends and the Britannia Schoohouse: a sundial was dedicated to Eva in the Victorian Garden beside the schoolhouse.

Eva was one of several authors of the book, “Echoes of the Past: The Rural One Room Schools of Peel County” by Friends of the Schoolhouse, 2016 – a publication that was begun by the late Joan Reid, but its culmination was spearheaded by Eva with meetings held at her home to reignite support for completing the book.

In addition to the book, Eva approached the Region of Peel Archives to ensure that the large amount of research materials compiled for the book by Joan Reid on the history of Peel County’s schools would be preserved. Eva had carefully stored Joan’s research materials in her house and worked with archives staff to safely transfer the material to the archives to ensure that this treasure-trove of historical documentation would be preserved for future generations.

Eva Ardiel on left, photo courtesy of Christine Chapel

Kyle Neill, Regional Archivist and Supervisor of Archival Services at the Region of Peel Archives fondly remembers Eva: “I for one am grateful for the love, care, and commitment she consistently demonstrated when working with us to safeguard and celebrate Joan’s work, and our archival holdings are significantly richer as a result of her efforts!”

Eva was also a significant contributor to The Old Britannia Schoolhouse newsletters and contributed to The Heritage News newsletter from Heritage Mississauga over the years.

Amongst Eva’s many contributions, she was one of the founders of SLATE (So Let’s All Talk Education in a one room schoolhouse). SLATE was an annual conference for those in southern Ontario and the northern US who were associated with living history education in one room schoolhouses.

Christine Chapel and Eva Ardiel at the Britannia Schoolhouse, photo courtesy of Christine Chapel

While Eva connected with several organizations in the wider heritage community, she will be primarily remembered as a constant presence with, and a passionate advocate for, the Old Britannia Schoolhouse. After her retirement in 1991, Eva was instrumental in forming the Friends of the Schoolhouse. Eva’s leadership and the Friends’ advocacy helped to preserve the schoolhouse and heritage education programming over the years.

When connecting with some people who knew Eva better than I did, one thing that came through was how talented and creative she was as an artist. Through crafting displays, maps and exhibits, she helped to highlight the stories of our past. Eva also led the charge for exhibits from the Friends of the Schoolhouse at many local heritage events. She also managed the buying and selling of reproductions of historic toys for the many Friends of the Schoolhouse fundraisers.

Others recalled her sense of hunour, and how she loved to hear, and share, funny stories and hunourous escapades from the schoolhouse’s history. Over the years following her retirement, other educators at the schoolhouse who followed in her footsteps came to rely upon her ideas, passion, experience, and openness to new ideas. Always a progressive thinker, her knowledge and love of history, her attention to detail, and her ability to “tell it as it was” approach without romanticizing or sugar coating our past were exceptional.

Eva was a recipient of a Heritage Mississauga Member’s Choice Award for her leadership and advocacy with the Friends of the Schoolhouse in 1997 and was nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Award at Heritage Mississauga’s The Credits gala in 2017.

Christine Chapel, a former schoolmistress from the schoolhouse herself, fondly recalls Eva: “I think of Eva as an innovator; a woman who broke barriers and stereotypes. She had a very Katherine Hepburn/Lauren Bacall way about her. She gave advice judiciously and offered opinions without reservation.”

After her passing, the Friends of the Schoolhouse posted a heartfelt tribute to Eva:

The Friends of the Schoolhouse will forever be grateful for Eva’s friendship, knowledge, enthusiasm, and dedication to preserving the history of the Old Britannia Schoolhouse. Eva will always be the “face” of the Friends of the Britannia Schoolhouse! She had the vision and the determination to keep the schoolhouse as a living history classroom for the students of Peel. She was an inspiration.

Eva was the schoolmistress at the Britannia Schoolhouse for many years, recreating the life of children in a one-room schoolhouse in the late 1800s. Students came for a day to role-play a school day of a hundred years ago. Eva developed a program for them that was interesting, exciting, and so different from what they were experiencing in their 20th and 21st-century classrooms. Following her retirement, she supported and guided the schoolmistresses and schoolmasters who followed in her footsteps. Eva will be greatly missed. The Friends are dedicated to carrying on her efforts to preserve her beloved schoolhouse.

For this remembrance article, we will give the final word to Dennis Patterson, who was the schoolmaster at the Old Britannia Schoolhouse from 2006 until 2011 and had a personal connection with Eva:

There are many stories that I could share of my time with Eva, many memories, many events along with quite a few cups of coffee. Being in the schoolhouse with just Eva was a privilege I was afforded on multiple occasions. Eva had a grandmother appearance and pace while I knew her but her mind was as sharp as any I have come across. We had both grown up in a similar place and in some ways had similar backgrounds, despite the age difference. We had the privilege to sit in that quiet little schoolhouse surrounded by suburban sprawl and share our thoughts on a wide variety of topics. Having Eva’s undivided attention was a delightful gift that I received on a regular basis during my time at the Schoolhouse. She was a wonderful listener and conversationalist, extremely encouraging while I figured out my role at the schoolhouse.

I remember going to Ben Madill’s house with her and eating pears off the tree and celebrating my first child’s recent birth at a big Halloween event on a cold fall evening. I remember big events welcoming my growing family back to the schoolhouse, a small lunch at her home in Brampton and finally a visit to the apartment in Kingston by the lake.

Once I moved on to Japan and a new teaching role Eva was there when called upon with what always seemed like the right piece of guidance. Eva outlived my grandmothers by 20+ years and to me filled some of that longing to have someone close to go to for wisdom of age.

I miss her and can only imagine how people with closer relationships must be feeling. We use the phrase 'one of a kind' too often now but I truly believe that for Eva that description is appropriate.