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March 2014
Serving Danville Tassajara One-Room Schoolhouse: 125 Years Young By Jody Morgan
The Tassajara One-Room Schoolhouse (the Schoolhouse) at 1650 Finley Road in Danville welcomes students Monday-Friday from January to June much as it did 125 years ago. Unlike the pupils who entered the building in 1889 ranging from first to eighth grade, children who come today are all third graders. Each class arrives in costume to experience old-fashioned education for a single day. On January 12, 1889, when the first Tassajara Grammar School was deemed too small, voters unanimously approved issuing bonds in the amount of $1,700 to build and furnish the present structure. The contract for construction went to J.L. Weilbye who completed the project in time for 41 students to study in the Schoolhouse that August. Roger Podva, a first grader in 1890, recalled students sitting two to a desk with as many as 75 pupils attending at one time. During peak seasons, the children of migrant farm workers joined those regularly enrolled. Children walked, rode horseback, or arrived in horse-drawn buggies. Enrollment dwindled to 16 before the Schoolhouse closed in 1946. Parents believed their children would receive a better educational experience by transferring to the larger Danville system. Gordon Rasmussen, a sixth grader in 1946, was quoted in a 1972 Contra Costa Times article: “It was like hitting you with both barrels. In 1946 I had one other kid in my class, but then all of a sudden the next year Recent rains have greened up the foothills of Mt. Diablo which provides a there were 40.” Nancy Rasmussen Ramsey was perfect opportunity for the Monta Vista High School Mountain Bike Club to get out and train. the only student in her grade level. Her family lived at least three miles Cake4Kids away, but no matter what the weathBy Fran Miller er, the four Rasmussen children Just as Valentine’s Day and rode their bicycles to school. Nancy chocolates go together, and July recalls that she always dreamed of 4th goes with fireworks, so do arriving first, but as the youngest birthdays and cake. Some may with the smallest cycle, she always argue that a birthday isn’t propcame last. Games at recess had to erly celebrated unless a cake accommodate the abilities of all the makes an appearance. But what different age levels. The children if a birthday takes place while made forts in the grass when it grew one is seeking refuge in a crisis tall. Nancy can still smell the strong center, or is in the care of harried soap they used to wash their hands. Dressed for time travel back to 1888, Don and Joan Kurtz foster parents, or is at a shelter The primitive privies, one for boys greet third graders at the Schoolhouse. or group home where baking is and one for girls, were not a hardship. Most of the children had outdoor plumbing at home. the last thing on anyone’s mind? “Tassajara” sounds Spanish, but the word comes from a Native Californian word Enter Cake4Kids, a unique Bay meaning “where the meat was hung to dry.” Although they initially tried farming, the Area organization whose volunDanish and Portuguese families who settled the area soon turned to cattle ranching. teers aim to fill the birthday cake The Rasmussen property also had walnut trees. During the void for disadvantaged and at-risk children and youth. Cake4Kids A Cakes4Kids volunteer baker adds the October harvest season, the children picked walnuts after Volume V - Number 5 volunteers bake and decorate finishing touches to a birthday cake that school and helped with the huller at night. 3000F Danville Blvd. #117, cakes in their home kitchens for will be delivered to a child in need. Planted by the first students, walnut trees on the SchoolAlamo, CA 94507 delivery to at-risk youth, ages one to 21. Serving a wide variety of Bay house grounds helped balance the budget in the 1940s. Wal(925) 405-6397 Area agencies, the Cake4Kids’ mission is to help one child at a time nuts picked by pupils were sold in a Pleasanton store owned Fax (925) 406-0547 feel good about his or her self at least one day each year. “We are serv- by the teacher’s husband. In 1889 married women were not ing children who, due to extreme circumstances, are often forgotten on permitted to teach, and participation in women’s suffrage Alisa Corstorphine ~ Publisher See Cake continued on page 12 editor@ activities was cause for dismissal. Regulayourmonthlypaper.com PRSRT STD tions had changed by the time Mrs. Gertrude U.S. Postage Arendt taught the last full-time class. The opinions expressed herein belong PAID Local the writers, and do not necessarily Janet Reinstein Rego, another of the final toreflect that of Danville Today News. Permit 263 Postal Customer Danville Today News is not 16, remembers the teacher serving hot soup Alamo CA responsible for the content of any of once a week using a hot plate in the teacher’s the advertising herein, nor does ECRWSS publication imply endorsement.
See Schoolhouse cont. on page 21