The History of Valencia School

by Molly Smith 

 

The original Valencia School , a two story schoolhouse, was built on Valencia School Road about 1881, to serve the 19th century lumber mill town of Valencia. The town of Valencia was located near the corner of Bear Creek and Valencia Roads where the present day Valencia Hall and Post Office are located in the Rancho Aptos.

The Rancho Aptos was the home of the family of Rafael Castro, son of Joaquin. In 1850 Rafael's daughter, Maria, married Nicolas Valencia. Maria received, as a gift from her father, 80 acres along the Santa Cruz - Watsonville Road (Soquel Drive) near today's Rio del Mar overcrossing of State Highway 1 in Aptos. This land became known as their Valencia Farm and the creek running along its northwest border, Valencia Creek.The lumber was harvested and the school closed around 1931.

Frederick A. Hihn founded the community of Valencia on land located in the Soquel Augmentation Rancho, which was originally granted to Maria Castro, daughter of Joaquin Castro. He rented land from Francesca Gonzales Melville, the granddaughter of General Rafael Castro, to build his railway from his Valencia mill to Aptos. This railway generally follows today's Valencia Road from Valencia to Aptos, a distance of 3 - 4 miles.
On nearly two thousand acres of first growth timber, he began his Valencia lumbering operation which, between the years 1884 and 1892, reportedly had the capacity for producing 30,000 to 70,000 board feet per day. It takes about 11,000 board feet to build a two bed room house so they were producing enough lumber to build about three to six houses per day or around a thousand houses per year.

By the turn of the century, this capacity had consumed the available timber and the mill was closed. Because Hihn did not believe in the traditional company town, he sold lots and small farms to those who worked in the mill, and gradually the area became largely agricultural and an apple producing district in Santa Cruz County. For a brief history of the community of Valencia and maps of the original town, see the Valencia Community Hall Web Site.

During the early twentieth century California was a desirable destination because of its climate. The Aptos Company was based in Los Angeles and consisted of three men, Monroe, Lyon and Miller.  They acquired 1,150 acres of land in what is now Rio Del Mar and Aptos..

The Aptos District had been operating a series of schools iin Aptos since about 1867.

In a 1973 oral interview of Paul D. Johnston in the collection of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Johnston says he and his wife helped pick the site for the school.   Mr. Johnston reported that three men named Monroe, Lyon and Miller whose company offered Aptos land for a new school site to replace the existing school.  Johston reported that the residents of Aptos called a meeting about 1927 and Johnston attended the meeting.  Johnston reported that he was then working at the Aptos Post Office.  Johnston says that he and several others were appointed to see if the land offered by Monroe, Lyon and Miller would be suitable for a school.  Johnston reported that Mrs. Spencer was one of the school trustees at that time and also Harry Baker.  In an oral history interview conducted in 1973 by Elizabeth Spedding Calciano, now in the Special Local History Collection of the McHenry Library, University of California, Santa Cruz, Johnston said:

"And we thought it was pretty nice, you know, with all the trees, and the children could play there and not be in the way and get hurt.  Traffic at the time, of course, wasn't as bad as it is now.  A few of the people didn't want it over there; didn't want it because it was over there and didn't show from the highway, and they say (sic), 'Well, we are building a nice school over there and nobody can see it'. At that time we traveled around a good bit of the State, and every time you come to a school, you had to almost stop and slow down, so we decided it would be better over there away from the highway where the kids could play and no trouble with anybody getting run over and have any trouble of any kind.  After we'd accepted it and built the school, then everybody thought it was wonderful.  But before there was a whole lot of them that didn't like it.  They thought it was a great detriment.  After we'd only had the property deed about two weeks, then (the developers of) Rio Del Mar, they had a chance to sell that to somebody, and they wanted to give us more acreage over here, right where the freeway is now, see?  And we wouldn't give it back to them.

The land is reported to be the former farm of Thomas J. Leonard.  By a deed dated December 3, 1926, The Aptos Company, a corporation conveyed 6.29 acres of land to Harry M. Rhodes, Ralph D. Mattison and J. J. Verhoeff, Trustees of The Aptos School District. The Aptos Company planned to develop land in the area and needed a school. The deed from the Aptos Company was recorded December 27, 1926 in Book 81, Official records of Santa Cruz County at pages 413-415.  A condition to the deed was that the “shall be occupied and used for school purposes within 18 months (by June, 1928)” and if not so occupied the lands would go back to the Aptos Company.  If the land ever ceased to be used as a school the lands also were required to be returned to The Aptos Company.

At that time Aptos was a sleepy village but it was growing. Land for the school lot on Valencia School Road was surveyed by local surveyor Lloyd Bowman in the Spring and Summer of 1926. A map was prepared in July, 1926.

On May 24, 1928, the Watsonville Evening Pajaronian carried an article called "Aptos News, by Mrs. C. J. Spencer. She reported:

Once again the school site question was discussed at the school house on Friday evening, with the result that citizens instructed the trustees to begin at once the construction of the school building on lands now owned by the district and presented to them for that purpose two years ago. The present school board who will manage the affair are Robert Townsend, J. J. Verhoeff and Harry Rhodes.

The public records indicate that the contract for construction of the school was promptly awarded to Harold K. Grahm of Watsonville. A copy of the construction contract was filed for record with the Santa Cruz County Recorder on June 28, 1928. A Notice of Completion indicates that the buildings were accepted for the Aptos School District by School Trustees Harry Rhodes, J. J. Verhoeff and R. F. Townsend. The Notice of Completion indicates that construction of the buildings was actually completed on January 15, 1929. The Notice of Completion was recorded on February 19, 1929 in Volume 143 of Official records at pages 402 and following. The original school was apparently constructed between June 1928 and January 1929. Unlike the earlier donated schools, District funds paid for the building which was designed inthe popular Mission style and had a stucco exterior and hardwood floors.

Noel Paddon attended the new school, then called ‘Aptos School’, from 1929 to 1934, the first four years of it’s existence.   He started at Aptos School in third grade in 1929, after moving from the original Valencia Elementary School, which no longer exists.

That’s how “Aptos School Road” got it’s name! says Mr. Paddon.  It contained three class rooms, an auditorium with dressing rooms, a library, kitchen, rest room, two large corridors and lavatories. The school opened with two teachers, Mrs. Knudsen of Watsonville and Mrs. Marie Wessell of Soquel. The former school was turned into a gymnasium.  One classroom was for kindergartners, first graders, and second graders; one for the third, fourth, and fifth graders; and one for the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. There were two teachers and the principal who taught the oldest class. Since there weren’t any buses yet, parents paid people who owned large cars to drive their children to school. In Mr. Paddon’s case, his parent’s -along with other Aptos School parents- paid the local butcher to drive their kids to and from school, on his way to and from work.
A photo taken about 1930 shows 74 students and three teachers, a Miss Bosley, Mrs. Nevins and Mrs. Adela G. Haynes. Mrs Haynes taught 6th-7th-8th grade and was also the principal. No school bus is in the background of the school as was true in the 1939 photo.

Aptos School got its first school bus in 1935.In 1945 A

Ms. Eva Gurkovich was principal and George Weiser was the driver.  The photo at the right is from "Going to School in Santa Cruz County, A History of the County's Public School System", by Margaret Koch, published by The Santa Cruz County Office of Education, Fall, 1978.  In the private collection of Mr. Ron Kinninger, Director of Child, Welfare, and Attendance, Pajaro Valley Unified School District.

A school photo take in 1933 shows three teachers and about 70 students.

A Photo taken about 1939 show about 70 students and 3 teachers and one school bus

On April 25, 1947, William and Helen Goff conveyed 3.15 acres of land to the Aptos

School District.  According to the tax stamps on the deed, the District paid the Goff’s $6,500.  The deed describes two parcels.  Parcel one was 3.88 acres and parcel two was 3.15 acres for a total of 7.03 acres.  The District’s Board of trustees said in the resolution approving the acceptance of the deed that the price was fair and reasonable.  The price was about $925 per acre.  The names of the trustees who are identified on the resolution are Ledyard, Charleen, Baker and Brownlee.  One trustee named Day was absent.  Lloyd R. Charleen signed the resolution as Chairman of the Board.  The deed and acceptance were recorded June 2, 1947 in Volume 581 of Santa Cruz County Records at pages 189 and 190.

 On July 1, 1947, George Taylor Toney and Georgia C. Toney, his wife conveyed 4.2 acres of land to the Aptos School District. The trustees of the Aptos School District accepted the deed by a resolution dated May 27, 1948.  The names of the school trustees unanimously approved accepting the deed of this land.  Their names were Gruseland, Bauer, Ledyard, Greer and E. C. Brownlee.  The deed and acceptance were recorded July 15, 1948.

 On July 16, 1947, Clara Leonard and Amelia Arano conveyed a strip of land to the Aptos School District.  The trustees of the Aptos School District accepted the deed by a resolution dated December 19, 1950.  The names of the school trustees who approved the acceptance were Lawrence, Friesel, Julian Kitchin and Opdyke.  The fifth trustee was absent.  His name was Wiseheart.  The deed and resolution were recorded April 24, 1951 in Volume 820 or Santa Cruz County Records, pages 65-67. 

In about 1948, four new classrooms were added to the school and a covered walkway between the new classrooms and the original 1928 building.

The Aptos Union Elementary School District acquired another portion of the school property in 1953.  It seems some land was owned by a man named Richard Santos.  Mr. Santos died sometime before April 1953.  In April, 1953 the Santa Cruz Court appointed Juan Basanes to be the Executor of Mr. Santos’ estate. Mr. Basanes wanted to sell land to settle Mr. Santos’s estate, pay his debts and give the rest of the money to Mr. Santos heirs.  The Aptos Elementary School District was the highest bidder at the court sale when it offered $3,150.  The sale was approved by the Court on April 3, 1953.  The purchase had been approved by the Board of Trustees of the District on April 3, 1953.  Three of the five trustees voted in favor, Opdyke, Lawrence and Lyon.  Two were absent, Mustain and Wiseheart.  Edward R. Lawrence signed the resolution as chairman of the Board.  The Deed was recorded April 16, 1953 in Volume 910 of Santa Cruz County Records as Document Number 4723. 

On June 28, 1965 Anna Atkinson, a widow conveyed 17.2 acres of land to the Aptos School District.  The deed was recorded September 2, 1965 in Book 1716, pages 16 and 17, Santa Cruz County Records.