Stanstead College is an English-language independent boarding school in Stanstead, Quebec, Canada, for boys and girls in Grades 7 through 12. The school is located on a campus in Quebec's Eastern Townships – just north of the Canada–United States border – and enrolls approximately 265 students. The school was established in 1872 as Stanstead Wesleyan College. The school was founded as a co-educational school. In 1959 it became 'boys only.' In 1979, the school returned to its original co-educational status. History In June 1871, the Wesleyan Conference of Canada selected what was then Stanstead Plain, Quebec, as the location of its new college for the Eastern Townships. Construction of the school began in fall 1872, with official incorporation of Stanstead Wesleyan College taking place on December 24, 1872. First classes were not held, however, until January 1874, with Rev. A. Lee Holmes serving as the first principal. Initially the school was financed through the sale of shares and tuition. However, due to the slow sales of shares and low tuition, the stockholders transferred the property of Stanstead Wesleyan College to the Montreal Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada in December 1876. Association with the Methodist Church of Canada (and later the United Church of Canada) continued until the 1980s, with the school reincorporating as a fully independent and non-denominational Stanstead College. In addition to providing education to boarding students, Stanstead Wesleyan College served as the local Protestant high school. In 1903, the Holmes Model School was opened, serving as the local grade school until Sunnyside School opened in 1952. The college also operated the Bugbee Business College and the Eastern Townships Conservatory of Music until 1958. In 1938, a fire destroyed the college's main building. Its replacement, Colby House, opened in 1940. During World War II, Stanstead College hosted a number of evacuees from Oldfeld School in Swanage, Dorset. In 1951, Pierce Hall was destroyed by fire. In 1959, Stanstead College became an all-boys residential school and remained so until 1979. In 1977, after Quebec adopted Bill 101, Stanstead College became fully independent by choosing to no longer accept subsidies from the Quebec government. The decision allowed the school to continue admitting students without certificates of eligibility. In 2001, the school’s Rec Hall was destroyed by fire, replaced eight months later by the new Eric T. Webster Student Centre. Working in collaboration with the Town of Stanstead and with