The Grenfell presence in Cartwright started in the winter of 1909-10, when the Battle Harbour hospital was closed for the winter and Dr. Wakefield and Nurse Allan opened a small temporary hospital at the Church of England Parsonage in Cartwright. A small room was built onto one end to serve as surgery and dispensary. This continued for several winters, and by 1920 a nurse was stationed in Cartwright during the winter while the hospital at Indian Harbour was closed.

The Labrador Public School was built at nearby Muddy Bay during the summer of 1919. This was a project undertaken by the Rev Henry Gordon with Grenfell's assistance as a response to the large number of orphans left in the area by the Spanish Flu epidemic of the previous year. The building was complete enough by November to have 34 students move in.

First Labrador Public School, Muddy Bay. The Rooms Provincial Archives. VA 16-20.

Some of the first occupants of the Labrador Public School, mostly orphans of Spanish flu. The Rooms Provincial Archives VA 16-25.

Muddy Bay: Harry Wilbur and his craft class. The Rooms Provincial Archives, VA 118-211.

The school at Muddy Bay was a large three storey structure with a cottage roof and five dormers. For a few years the school was run as part of the Newfoundland public school system under the direction of Rev. Gordon, but in 1923 it was officially taken over by the Grenfell Mission. At that time a new parsonage was built for Gordon at Cartwright and the bungalow used by Rev Gordon at Muddy Bay became a permanent station for nurses in the Cartwright area.

Fire destroyed the school at Muddy Bay on Feb 19, 1928. Grenfell immediately started an appeal for funds to build a new school at Cartwright. A $25,000 dollar donation from Mrs. J. S. Lockwood allowed building to start quickly and the first students moved into the school in the fall of 1930. The dormitory, known as Gordon Hall, burnt to the ground on June 19th, 1934; one student, who was isolated on the top floor with scarlet fever, died in the fire. Efforts to raise funds to rebuild the dorm started immediately. In the meantime, after the fire the school house was converted to function as a dormitory, nursing station and clothing store as well as a school.

The decision to rebuild the school at Cartwright was the beginning of major developments for the Grenfell Mission at Cartwright. A decision was made to build a year-round hospital and turn the Indian Harbour hospital into a seasonal nursing station. A sizeable donation for this project was made by Lord Maclay of Scotland in memory of his wife in 1929, but the ensuing economic difficulties of the Great Depression delayed the construction of the building.

Sketch plan identifying Grenfell building site at Cartwright and the proposed waterline. ca. 1930 (?). The Rooms Provincial Archives, MG 63-X91.

The Lady Maclay Cottage Hospital was constructed in the summer of 1936. The Rooms Provincial Archives, IGA 1-397.

Aerial view of Grenfell property at Cartwright, ca. 1955. Them Days, Joan Stedman Collection, s3047.

The site for the new school and hospital selected by Grenfell was on the south side of the bay at Cartwright, on the opposite side of the harbour from the Hudson's Bay Company post. It was an ideal building site but presented a great challenge for access to water. An ambitious project to bring water a distance of more than 3500 feet from a falls on Burdett's Brook to the school and hospital site started in the summer of 1930; water ran to Lockwood School in the summer of 1932.

The waterline was dug by crews of labourers and volunteers from the United States and Great Britain. Their only equipment was a Ford truck, a temperamental tractor and an Ingersoll-Rand machine that was used as a jackhammer. It became the largest engineering feat ever undertaken in Labrador at that time.

Ted McNeil and workers during a construction project at Cartwright – tractor used to build pipeline, 1931. The Rooms Provincial Archives, NA 23886.

Group of WOPs [workers without pay] on Ford truck, Cartwright. 1931. The Rooms Provincial Archives, IGA 43-15.

WOPs [workers without pay] digging water main at Cartwright. The Rooms Provincial Archives, IGA 26-14.

Construction of both the Lady Maclay Cottage Hospital and the new dormitory for Lockwood School took place during the summer of 1936 under the direction of Ted McNeil, the engineer from Grenfell headquarters at St. Anthony who had also directed the construction of the waterline. Work began on both buildings in June and they were both complete and ready to be occupied by the middle of October.

Charles Bird was associated with the Grenfell Mission in the Cartwright area for many years. He and his family spent part of the year at Muddy Bay prior to the establishment of the Labrador Public School. His involvement with the Mission started with the construction of the school. He took care of maintenance of the school until it burnt. He was then involved in the construction of the new school and dormitory, the waterline and the Lady Maclay Hospital at Cartwright. It was Charles Bird who figured out a way to move the old bungalow at Muddy Bay to Cartwright in the early 1930s.

Cartwright became the centre of the Industrial Department on the Labrador coast. Mrs. K. M. (Kitty) Keddie came to Cartwright as director in 1934. That summer the Hudson's Bay Company, who had purchased the old bungalow at Muddy Bay, presented it to the Grenfell Mission as gift to be a home for Mrs. Keddie. The building was floated from Muddy Bay to Cartwright by a group of men organized by Charlie Bird, long-time maintenance man for the Mission at Muddy Bay and Cartwright. She named the cottage the Half-Beaver Cottage, after a fur trade token used by the Hudson's Bay Company.

Kitty Keddie, wearing head scarf, with two young women and older woman seated on veranda working on handicrafts. Craft items from the Industrial, primarily dolls, are on veranda and visible through window. (1930s). The Rooms Provincial Archives, A 58-119.

Mrs. Kate M. (Kitty) Keddie worked with the IGA from 1931 to 1958. She started with the St. Anthony clothing store and was a long-time Industrial Worker at Cartwright, Labrador. Keddie retired in 1958 and left Labrador. The Rooms Provincial Archives A 101-2.

Mat making in the Industrial Department. This is Ida Lethbridge from Cartwright. In 1945 she lived close by the Grenfell properties in Cartwright and appears to have had a nurse and nurse’s aid from the hospital staying with her. She is hooking a rug with the mallard duck pattern. The Rooms Provincial Archives IGA 16-32.

Another building was later moved from Muddy Bay to Cartwright by the HBC for use as an industrial shop.

The exceptionally fine embroidery executed by women of the Cartwright area had been noticed by past industrial workers. During the 14 years that Mrs. Keddie worked at Cartwright she fostered the development and promotion of this skill with the result that Cartwright is still known for it. She was also responsible for the construction of the new and modern Lady Grenfell Memorial Industrial Building in 1951.