Round Town • Paso Robles Area Historical Society
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by Camille DeVaul and Paso Robles Area Historical Society and Museum
t is now July, and all schools are officially out for summer. We have celebrated our Class of 2022 students and welcomed them on their way to whatever path they have chosen in this next chapter of life. Traditionally before graduation, Paso Robles High School students take a walk down memory lane and tour the city’s schools that brought them to where they are now. As the graduating class takes a look at their past while walking into the future, let’s take a minute to look at the history and past of the schools that shaped them. The first school in Paso Robles was opened on May 21, 1877, and sat on what is now Riverside Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets. Built by Drury W. James, one of Paso’s founders, the one-room school house faced the Salinas River. Ten years later, the school was enlarged to twice its size, yet it still wasn’t large enough. This problem led to the first school tax election and a new two-room schoolhouse was built on the corner of 17th and Oak streets. And in 1892 Paso Robles built the first high school in the county. The first Paso Robles High School was built in 1892 on the corner of 17th Street and Oak Street on land donated by the city’s founders, James and the Blackburn brothers (Daniel and James). It stood as a three-story brick building with eight classrooms, two recitation rooms, an office and a 600-seat auditorium on the third floor. The original plan was to accommodate all students in grades 1-12. The building was completed in 1892. The third floor developed cracks during the 1906 earthquake and the floor was removed in 1925. The building was razed in 1939 and was replaced by the Primary School (old Marie Bauer School) in 1941-42. The Class of 1896 was the first graduating class of Paso Robles High School. For the first 10 years, the average number of graduates was about nine, with a peak during those first years of 15 in 1903. Until 1916, the original building also held grades five through eight. In 1916, it officially became Paso Robles High School until 1924; the following year, it became the George Flamson Middle School. In 1924, science teacher E.W. Moore and his Radio Club students designed and built the community’s first radio transmitter in the high school, broadcasting their first program on January 28 and using the temporary call letters GXRR. It was heard as far away
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as Missouri and Canada. The official call letters KFNL were awarded to the station a week later. The station was able to broadcast public programs from the school. The Class of 1924 had 39 graduates, the largest graduating class to date and also included six graduates from Shandon High School. The second Paso Robles High School building was on Spring Street between 24th and 25th streets. The site was once a beautiful park that allowed overnight parking. The school was completed in December 1924 and dedicated on January 25, 1925. On the south end was an auditorium to seat 600 and was said to have had the best acoustics in the state. It was ivy-covered and boasted massive oak entrance door. During the following years, other structures were built: a gymnasium, home economics building, science room, woodshop, music room and an agricultural building. By 1958, the school was declared unsafe and a bond was passed for $565,000 to rehabilitate the building. During the remodel, the brick façade and front door were removed. In 1981, it became George Flamson Middle School. During the 2003 San Simeon earthquake, the school was heavily damaged and was torn down and rebuilt. The building of the third Paso Robles High School, located at 801 Niblick Road, began in 1979 and was completed in December 1980, then dedicated on January 18, 1981. Over 1,000 students first attended the new campus in 1981. The Liberty Continuation School was added to the school grounds on September 5, 1991. The grammar school on Vine Street was first known as the Paso Robles Primary Elementary School. As time went by, the Glen Speck School and the Marie Bauer School (Paso Robles Elementary School) were joined together under one principal and became one school for kindergarten through fifth grade. These two schools were merged into one name: Bauer/ Speck School. Through the years, other elementary schools have been built and named after longtime local educators: Georgia Brown (built in 1948), Winifred Pifer (1956), Virginia Peterson (1989), Pat Butler (1990), Daniel E. Lewis Middle School (1995), and Kermit King (2001). The El Paso de Robles Area Historical Society and Museum are honored to be located in the historic Carnegie Library at the center of City Park. To learn more, visit pasorobleshistorymuseum.org.
Paso Robles Magazine | July 2022
