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Pickering College was built by the Society of Friends or Quakers, as they are commonly known, on a commanding hill just north of the Village of Pickering about 1875. It was a landmark admired by all who travelled the old Kingston Road, now known as Highway No. 2 of Ontario. Situated upon the highest points of the district, the old college could be seen for miles, and the students could overlook the north shore of Lake Ontario for many miles to the east and west. It was the successor of a Friends' Boarding School, situated near West Lake in Prince Edward County, which was opened in 184l. The academy was incorporated in l848 under the name of the Friends' or Quakers' Seminary. In 1877, the staff and school moved into the new building in Pickering. About five acres of beautiful grounds with a winding tree-lined drive led up to the fine red and white brick structure, crowning the hill. It was a co-ed school where primary students, as well as older pupils were prepared for a University entrance. The east side of the structure was occupied by the girls, and the west by the boys. Capacious and cheerful quarters were supplied for teachers. Class rooms occupied the whole of the second floor. In the centre section was a large study-room with stage for entertainments, and the meetings of the literary Society. On the third and fourth stories were the dormitories and the staff suites. The dining room and kitchen, with rooms for help, as well as a science room, were situated in the basement. The Matron's and the Principal's quarters occupied a wing to the north. In fact, the school was well equipped throughout, at a cost that was a mere moiety of the expenditures incurred by the big secondary schools of to day, a splendid example of which lies only a stone's throw westward from the old site. Unfortunately, the college was burned to the ground, during the Christmas vacation in 1905. Nearly all the records and equipment were destroyed. Only the large brick gymnasium building to the north-west with the stables and pump-houses were saved. This gymnasium has since been remodeled into the spacious summer home of Mr. & Mrs. E. L. Ruddy who purchased the property when the directors of the institution, decided to rebuild the school at Newmarket. Owing to a litigation among the two or three Quaker bodies in the early eighties, the school at Pickering was closed from 1885 until 1892. Many well known educational men, occupied the positions of Principal and Staff. Previous to 1885, Mr. F. Furgess M.A., John E. Bryant M.A., S. Percy Davis M.A., and William H. Houston M.A., were successive principals. Mr. Davis died while on the staff and his grave lies just inside the main gateway of the Union Cemetery at Oshawa. On the re-opening in 1892, Mr. W. P. Firth M.A., D.Sc., became principal. With his wife, formerly Mi Ella Rogers B.A., daughter of Samuel Rogers, a well known Toronto figure at that time, the school prospered, and attendance grew rapidly. Students came from all over the Continent, as well as from Japan, Russia, China, Persia, Armenia, Australia, Central America and the West Indies. A large number of Jamaicans graduated from the school. Many local students attended both the preparatory, as well as the collegiate departments. In the early nineties the attendance taxed the capacity of the building. While thoroughness was made of utmost consideration, the school was pre-eminently a training residential insti-tution, where the religious needs of everday existence, were at all times emphasized in the daily exercises and opportunities for athletic excellence, were supplied in the Gymnasium and on the courts, the rinks, and the ball fields surrounding the main building. Many interleague ball games, with other residential schools were enjoyed. Association football as well as rugby, where the rules of that day were not so restricted as they are to day, were modified by the good moral atmosphere-for the most part-of the college.