Laguna Schoolhouse, Milpitas, CA (1865-1943)

(This page was partially borrowed from the Milpitas Historical Society)

 


 

Laguna School was the first school constructed in the Milpitas area. It was built where Felter Road and Calaveras Road intersected. This made it easier for the students who lived on the ranches and farms for miles around to attend. According to Patricia Loomis' book, Milpitas, the Century of Little Cornfields 1852-1952, Laguna School was built in 1865 as a one room school 24 by 30 feet at a cost of $600. The school underwent many changes in its 70 years as a classroom. The front cloakroom was added about 20 years after initial construction and the second outer siding was put on about the same time.

In the 1880s teachers who worked at Laguna School were Rosalie O'Brian, P. Henning, Miss Emma Watkins, George Kraft, T.W. Whitehurst, and Stella Herndon. The trustees included J.W. Greenfield, Alfred Felter (for whom the road is named), H. H. Flagg, and Michael Hughes, who had built the first wood frame house along Penitencia Creek on modern Main Street probably between modern Serra and Carlo Streets.

When enrollment declined below the required minimum of five students, in 1943, the old school closed its doors.

In 1949, Laguna School was sold for $575 to a nearby rancher, Mildred Beans. Mrs. Beans modified the building to use as a barn. It has continued to be used as a barn and storage shed by subsequent owners up to the present day.

 


View to the Northwest. Siding put on in 1880s can be clearly seen on the school proper.


This bookcase was originally located between the two front doors (one for girls and one for boys) and built in as part of the wall and floor. When the school was renovated in the 1880s the bookcase and its section of floor were moved into the cloak room at front of the school and the two doors became a wider entry.

Note the beaded wood boards used on the walls. The ceiling is about ten feet in height and is of the same beaded board. The narrow pine boards on the flooring are on top of older, wider flooring boards. 

The school rests upon a foundation of large stones containing shell fossils.



Some interior shots taken in March, 2001 during one of the rare times that the building was empty.

A page from Robert Burrill's book Images of America: Milpitas
click here for more information about this book

Laguna School can be seen on this 1887 map, with Calaveras and Felter
Roads showing the same curves they do today!

Milpitas Historical Society Pages