THUNDER BAY – Before it was named after Dennis Franklin Cromarty, this school was known as Northwood High School. Northwood, which opened for the 1963-64 school year (just before this photo was shot), represented a new type of secondary school introduced in the 1960s known as “Special Vocational Schools.”
These institutions educated students who chose not to pursue a university education or who felt themselves unsuited to the vocational training offered by the other high schools.
Though it proved popular with students, Northwood was closed in 1996 for economic reasons before reopening in 2000 as DFC.
Text by Tory Tronrud, Thunder Bay Museum
Photo courtesy of the Thunder Bay Museum