Clayton Elementary School

The heritage value of Clayton Elementary School lies in its physical location on a property that has been continuously used as a school site since 1891. Numerous schools were opened early in Surrey's history, reflecting the importance of education in the district. The first school in the Clayton area was a one-room log cabin built by a homesteader in the 1870s across the road from the current school. In 1891, the Department of Land and Works designed a standard one-room school across the street from the log cabin. A new two-room schoolhouse was erected at the same site in 1921. Although the 1891 building was later demolished, the 1921 structure remains in use as a school today, and is connected to a larger, more modern school building located directly behind it.

Clayton Elementary School is also valued as an illustration of the standardized Arts and Crafts style of school design that typified schools in Surrey and across British Columbia during this time, as seen in its prominent regular rectangular massing, side-gabled roof with exposed rafters, central stairway and ubiquitous banked wood windows that let ample light into the classroom.