Volume 031-3 - July 1977 (8 pages)

Cottage The Washington School, corner of Main and Coyote Streets was completed and dedicated on Washington’s Birthday in 1869. students in Class A, twenty-one in Class B and thirty-one in Class C, a total enrollment of fifty-eight. (By 1885 class names were changed to Junior Year, Middle Year, and Senior Year.) There were no graduations until 1880. Students remained as long as they wished and usually stayed to prepare themselves and qualify elsewhere. Many of them took County Teacher’s examinations and began teaching in the rural towns of the County. In 1871, Fred Searls Sr. passed the requirement for entry into the University of California and became a member of the last class to graduate while that institution was still in Oakland. The first commencement exercises were held in the Nevada Theater, June 13, 1880. The presentation address was given by Senator E. P. Preston, a former principal and County School Superintendent. (The Preston School for Boys was later named for him.) By 1911, the Washington School building was no longer adequate to house the primary, intermediate, grammar grades and a high school enrollment of 125, so a bond issue was brought before the voters. The night before, the high school students had a rally and afterwards marched through the streets carrying transparencies and flags, singing songs and giving high-school yells. The march was known as the “Grand Boost Parade.” Headed by a Drum Corp, the students gathered in the center of town at Broad and Pine Streets amid the firing of firecrackers. The next day, April 25, 1911, a $30,000 bond was passed and when the news reached the theater where a school play ‘The Rice Pudding’ was in progress, the old walls resounded to the cheers. A portion of the old Joaquin Lopez ranch on Zion Street was purchased, and work began the following spring. Parker & Kenyon, San Francisco architects and the Roberts Brothers, Construction engineers, also of San Francisco, were hired to plan and build. Constructed of brick and covered with cement, the original school facing the town is classical in design. Margaret Everett, Class of 1914, in a Quill article, described the construction. “Everyone watched the work with interest, and almost daily some new report was brought in ‘The foundations are laid all the way around!’ ‘The walls are up to the second story!’ ‘The floors are laid!’ ‘The partitions are in,’ and so on. In spite of the apparently rapid progress made, there were many delays because of the size of the building, so that when school opened September 12, 1912, the building was not yet completed. For two weeks we had half-day sessions & after that we began at 8:18 and closed at 2:30, so as to give the carpenters more time to work without interruption. And so, under our very eyes, our new home grew, untilin October itis all perfect the rough gray exterior with the large windows and the inviting entrance; the cozy teacher’s room and the office, one on each side of the front door; the big hall with the fountain in the center, and the great brown beams overhead; and the three recitation rooms with their rows of chairs. The assembly hall is fifty feet long and hasa polished maple floor. The seats are nailed to strips of wood, instead of being fastened to the floor, so that they can be moved out and the room left clear for dancing or playing games. The commercial department is roomy and well furnished. There is a main room for recitation with adjoining ‘compartments’ of glass for study and for typewriting. This arrangement enables the teacher to conduct recitations undisturbed by the click of typewriters, and still have supervision of those who are studying or typing. All these rooms and the girl’s dressing room are upstairs. On the lower floor are the light, well-equipped physic(™) and chemistry laboratories; the large pleasant drawing room, and the boy’s lunch room and coat room.” School opened on the finished second floor while carpenters worked on the lower level. The total of fourteen rooms, enough to accommodate 200 students, was heated by forced air from the basement. By 1936, the enrollment began climbing towards the 300 mark and a Spanish-style addition including a large gymnasium was added to the back. Charles Rector Lindley, a former student was the architect. On the grounds were fruit trees, sheds and a barn, remnants of the old

Cottage The Washington School, corner of Main and Coyote Streets was completed and dedicated on Washington’s Birthday in 1869. students in Class A, twenty-one in Class B and thirty-one in Class C, a total enrollment of fifty-eight. (By 1885 class names were changed to Junior Year, Middle Year, and Senior Year.) There were no graduations until 1880. Students remained as long as they wished and usually stayed to prepare themselves and qualify elsewhere. Many of them took County Teacher’s examinations and began teaching in the rural towns of the County. In 1871, Fred Searls Sr. passed the requirement for entry into the University of California and became a member of the last class to graduate while that institution was still in Oakland. The first commencement exercises were held in the Nevada Theater, June 13, 1880. The presentation address was given by Senator E. P. Preston, a former principal and County School Superintendent. (The Preston School for Boys was later named for him.) By 1911, the Washington School building was no longer adequate to house the primary, intermediate, grammar grades and a high school enrollment of 125, so a bond issue was brought before the voters. The night before, the high school students had a rally and afterwards marched through the streets carrying transparencies and flags, singing songs and giving high-school yells. The march was known as the “Grand Boost Parade.” Headed by a Drum Corp, the students gathered in the center of town at Broad and Pine Streets amid the firing of firecrackers. The next day, April 25, 1911, a $30,000 bond was passed and when the news reached the theater where a school play ‘The Rice Pudding’ was in progress, the old walls resounded to the cheers. A portion of the old Joaquin Lopez ranch on Zion Street was purchased, and work began the following spring. Parker & Kenyon, San Francisco architects and the Roberts Brothers, Construction engineers, also of San Francisco, were hired to plan and build. Constructed of brick and covered with cement, the original school facing the town is classical in design. Margaret Everett, Class of 1914, in a Quill article, described the construction. “Everyone

watched the work with interest, and almost daily some new report was brought in ‘The foundations are laid all the way around!’ ‘The walls are up to the second story!’ ‘The floors are laid!’ ‘The partitions are in,’ and so on. In spite of the apparently rapid progress made, there were many delays because of the size of the building, so that when school opened September 12, 1912, the building was not yet completed. For two weeks we had half-day sessions & after that we began at 8:18 and closed at 2:30, so as to give the carpenters more time to work without interruption. And so, under our very eyes, our new home grew, untilin October itis all perfect the rough gray exterior with the large windows and the inviting entrance; the cozy teacher’s room and the office, one on each side of the front door; the big hall with the fountain in the center, and the great brown beams overhead; and the three recitation rooms with their rows of chairs. The assembly hall is fifty feet long and hasa polished maple floor. The seats are nailed to strips of wood, instead of being fastened to the floor, so that they can be moved out and the room left clear for dancing or playing games. The commercial department is roomy and well furnished. There is a main room for recitation with adjoining ‘compartments’ of glass for study and for typewriting. This arrangement enables the teacher to conduct recitations undisturbed by the click of typewriters, and still have supervision of those who are studying or typing. All these rooms and the girl’s dressing room are upstairs. On the lower floor are the light, well-equipped physic(™) and chemistry laboratories; the large pleasant drawing room, and the boy’s lunch room and coat room.” School opened on the finished second floor while carpenters worked on the lower level. The total of fourteen rooms, enough to accommodate 200 students, was heated by forced air from the basement. By 1936, the enrollment began climbing towards the 300 mark and a Spanish-style addition including a large gymnasium was added to the back. Charles Rector Lindley, a former student was the architect. On the grounds were fruit trees, sheds and a barn, remnants of the old