Saying Goodbye to the LFA Field

As stakes are driven into the field, and surveying equipment and even an excavator appear, we wanted to take a moment to remember what the field has meant to our students and our school. There’s no one better equipped to speak to the history of the LFA field than the man who’s taken care of it all these years, our Building and Grounds Manager, Richard Cannon.

According to Mr. Cannon, since the installation of the field in 1992, it has been mowed roughly 650 times. Once upon a time, there used to be a road off King Edward Ave that passed through what would now be the middle of the playing field. Until 2007 there were two granite pillars located just off the sidewalk, under the trees that marked the entry to where the road started. Those pillars were taken down in 2007 and re-used again as pillars marking the entrance to the new walkway located just south of the main school entrance off the Alexandra Street sidewalk. 

Through the years, as the trees on King Edward Ave grew in height and width, parents helped Mr. Cannon cut and remove tree roots that cropped up through the playing field soil and became tripping hazards. Once the surface tree roots were removed, soil and grass seed were used to fill the holes and reseed the grass.

While the field is not a regulation size for soccer or field hockey it was always used as a practice field for LFA sports. LFA was one of the few remaining schools that still used a grass field to practice field hockey. The field was a fixture for annual Sports Days and once featured a dunk tank for our Run for the Cure event.

The playing field has also been used for student assembly during all the school fire evacuation and earthquake drills that have been conducted over the years. A logbook recording all the drills, dating back to October 17, 1996, is still in use today. Sister Eileen Kelly created the log using a simple, inexpensive school exercise book, showing the Sisters money saving habits. Her SEK initials were the first entry in the book.

Most of the plants that grew along the berm between the playing field and the tennis courts were transplanted there during the 2007 construction of the new wing. These plants originally grew around the old convent and Foundress Hall that was removed to build the new wing and courtyard. Brick from both of those structures filled the berm steps and became the place for students to sit along the side lines and watch the action on the playing field.

 

There is so much history not only in the field at LFA, but the hallways, the classrooms, the gyms, and all throughout the campus. As we near our centenary and as the campus prepares to take on a new form, we’re grateful for the stories that have taken place on our grounds, and all those yet to come. While the places that make this school hold such special memories, it is ultimately the people that have come, gone, returned, and stayed that continue to make LFA what it is. We are grateful for all that the LFA field once provided our students, and we are beyond excited for the building it will soon serve home to.