1908 Cleland 1952

Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963), 140 pp., 1908, 1900s

     An ill fate awaited the new school, which had been renamed the Washington School. Five years after its completion on January 2, 1908, it burned to the ground. Miss Hamlin recalls the incidents that occurred that day: [46. loc. cit.]

     "We were having trouble with the furnace that day. Some of the rooms were too hot, others too cold. As a consequence, we could hear an almost continuous signaling to the janitor. I finally talked to him and he said that he was giving the furnace as much as he dared. I instructed him to adjust the ventilators, and then went back to my room, for I was still a teaching principal. Ten minutes later one of my third grade boys rushed up to the desk and cried out excitedly, "Miss Hamlin, Miss Hamlin, the school's on fire!"

     "I asked him if he remembered the fire drill. When he said that he did, I asked him to give it at once. I then went into the hall to investigate. One of the teachers had her pupils lined up there for the flames had burst through the ventilators in her room. When everyone was safely out of the building, I discovered that the boys, by some prearranged signal among themselves, had formed groups to rescue all the art objects, the encyclopedia, and even the piano."

     The Washington School that rose out of the ashes of the old one the same year gave the neighborhood its first fine brick building. Cement sidewalks had been laid around the entire block, but weeds and wild flowers still grew unmolested in the streets. The new building contained twelve rooms, was of two-story construction, and commanded a view of the Santa Monica-Ocean Park strand. The slope of the hill permitted the extension of the building downward, creating a sub-story. Before three years were passed, space in the sub-story room had been converted into classroom space. [47. Pearl, op. cit., p. 27.]

(Back to Sources)

 Kelyn Roberts 2017