by Lisa Robinson
*
This coming school year celebrates
the sesquicentennial of the Boulder
School District. A motion to
create the school district was on
the agenda of the Board of Supervisors
on December 26, 1868
and the district was re-affirmed
in May 1869. In 1870, because of
conflicts in the County school district
boundaries, the boundaries of
each district were redefined.
The exact location of the first
schoolhouse in Boulder Creek
and the date of its first opening is
uncertain. In 1870, there were 18
children between the ages of 5 and
15 that the district could serve. By
1871, the number of children in
the district had almost doubled.
In 1872, the schoolhouse is described
as “Alcorn’s School
House” and was located on John
Alcorn’s land, most likely close to
the corner of West Park Avenue. It
was just a tiny seven feet by nine
feet. Flora Bradley was one of the
pioneer teachers and taught at the
school between 1872 and 1874. So
too was Frank Darling. In 1874,
Clara Brimblecom passed her
grade one teacher’s examination
and in 1875 became the school
ma’am.
In 1878, the schoolhouse was
described as the smallest and
poorest in the county. An election
had been held that year to raise
$1000 by means of a tax to build a
new school house. However, the
residents of neighboring Lorenzo,
realizing the schoolhouse would
not be built in their town, even
though a lot had been offered by
Lorenzo town site owner Joseph
W. Peery, voted against the measure.
Further tensions between the
residents of the neighboring
towns ensued when the residents
of Lorenzo filed a petition, with
the school trustees, to remove the
experienced teacher, Mrs. Clara
Brimblecom Olmstead, in favor of
hiring a male teacher. They argued
that she was too gentle and as
now married could be supported
by her husband. Mrs. Olmstead
resigned, and the board of trustees
was compelled to hire a man
“whose ability as a teacher we
knew nothing” according to Winfield
Scott Rodgers. The outcome
was disastrous and resulted in
only 12 of the district’s 47 children
regularly attending class. Mrs.
Olmstead was re-hired.
In 1879, under Daniel Brackett’s
tutelage, the schoolhouse was
described as “crowded to suffocation.”
“We don’t however intend
to put up a new one until we get
rich enough to build one with one
end in Lorenzo and the other at
Boulder Creek, so as to satisfy the
claims of both our rival cities.”
In 1880, land on the slope above
West Park Avenue (just above the
library today) was offered by the
San Lorenzo Flume and Transportation
Company for a new school
building “as a free gift.” The land
was located near the old school
house but about 150-200 feet higher,
overlooking the flat areas that
encompassed the towns of Boulder
and Lorenzo.
The contract for building a new
1880 schoolhouse was awarded to
F. A. McCann. It was to be a one
storey structure, 26 feet by 36 feet,
painted outside, and plastered
inside, with “two corner rooms
and a library in front.” The cost of
the structure was to be $632. On
July 24, 1880, a dance was held at
the Washingtonian Hall next to
the Boulder Creek House Hotel on
the corner of West Park to benefit
the new school house. The school
soon outgrew the structure and
graduating exercises had to be
held at the Washingtonian Hall.
When the new grammar school
was built on the present elementary
school site, the 1880 school
house was converted into a home
for Winfield Scott Rodgers, who
became the editor of the Mountain
Echo newspaper. To be continued…