During the Great Depression, Robert Knight decided to open an independent boarding school in Qualicum Beach.
The Qualicum Beach School was founded in September 1935 with nine students. In 1937, the school was relocated to a specially-designed building on 17 acres of seaside property. The school was renamed Qualicum College in 1949, and operated until 1970.
The school’s playing fields were subsequently subdivided for a housing estate; the Tudor-style main building was purchased by a group who transformed it into the Qualicum College Inn.
In 2011 developers attempted to convert the hotel and surrounding property into Qualicum College Heights, a complex of 40 condominiums