The saga of Vallejo’s oldest school
Lincoln Elementary has faced closure before
Vallejo was booming in 1857 when a four-room public school was built at the corner of Carolina Street and Sonoma Boulevard. Now, 163 years later, students still attend classes there — but Lincoln Elementary School’s days may be numbered.
Public schools have been at the downtown Carolina Street location longer than any other site in Vallejo. That history, however, may not overcome the stark reality of decreasing enrollments and fund
ing woes faced by the city’s school system.
But Lincoln School’s story deserves a re-telling — no matter what happens.
There were private classrooms in Vallejo starting in 1851, but no public education until
1855, when a voluntary subscription of $1,000 financed construction of a combined church and school on Virginia Street, between Sonoma Boulevard and Marin Street.
But the joint arrangement didn’t last very long, and there was no permanent classroom location until 1857, when another voluntary subscription funded a school on Carolina Street.
By 1867 the school had been enlarged from four to five rooms but was still too small, with each room crowded with 70 to 125 students. There weren’t enough seats, so some pupils brought their own stools or boxes and perched on them during their classes. City trustees succeeded two years later in getting voters to approve Vallejo’s first school bond, and a new, $18,000 Lincoln School was ready in time for the fall term in 1870. The 3-story building, located on the upper end of the block close to Sutter Street, housed both the grammar school and the city’s first high school. That was followed by construction of a smaller building, named Jefferson School, on the lower end of the block fronting on Sonoma Boulevard, completed in 1873 at a cost of $8,500.
The high school relocated from Lincoln to the 900 block of Ohio Street in 1911. Ten years later, the high school moved again, to its current location on Nebraska Street. The Ohio Street building continued as a grammar school until about 1936, when it was razed and the site became Washington Playground.
The large Gothic Revival-style Lincoln School building that opened on Carolina Street in 1870 was destroyed by a fire attributed to arsonists in 1894, and the city had to arrange for temporary space for students and argue with insurance companies to get enough money for a replacement structure. Board of Education members also faced a combative school superintendent, the Rev. William Bollard, who accused them of illegal actions in their rush to replace the torched school. Bollard finally resigned and the new building, the city’s third Lincoln School, was completed and remained in use until 1938. It was then torn down and replaced by a fourth Lincoln School, the current Mission-style structure that opened the following year. The school got 45 percent of its funding from the federal Public Works Administration, and the remaining 55 percent was covered by another school bond approved by voters.
Critics of the current closure proposal have argued that Lincoln is the only public school in the downtown area, in addition to being a historic school built on land donated by John Frisbie,
Gen. Mariano Vallejo’s son-in-law, solely for educational purposes. It’s one of eight school district properties targeted by a special committee attempting to find ways to pay down $15 million owed by the school district to the state of California. The amount is the balance on a $60 million loan made about 15 years ago to help the school district remain solvent.
Lincoln School has been in this situation before. In 2007, a state administrator said the school could be closed to help balance the school district budget and create a reserve. The problem then is the same one now — declining enrollments.
Lincoln Principal Sandra Nahal has said that she and other school staffers understand the need for the school district to be financially solvent but “we do not feel that closing our school is in the best interest of our students and their families here at Lincoln.” The school’s supporters couldn’t agree more.
“It’s a shame. It would be a big mistake,” says local attorney Mike Ioakimedes, who attended Lincoln School starting in 1936. “Closing the school is not serving the public, in my mind. This is the only public school in downtown Vallejo.” He and other Lincoln advocates note that it serves some of Vallejo’s poorest families, as well as newcomers who have moved their families into the neighborhood in recent years. Lincoln also underwent extensive renovations in 1999.
Megan Freedman, who lives across the street from the school, is part of a highly active crowd made up of individuals, service groups, church members and others who support Lincoln Elementary and want it to stay open. She says the volunteers do everything from organizing fundraisers to donating their time for school upkeep. “We want to help take care of the school,” she says. “The students and the teachers are part of us. We feel strongly about them as neighbors.”
The school district’s Property Advisory Committee recently presented the plan for possible closure. Other sites on the list include Franklin Middle, Beverly Hills Elementary, Farragut Academy, the district’s main office building on Mare Island, the former sites of John Finney High and Grant Elementary, and Crest Center. The committee, appointed in September by the school board, considered current and projected enrollments, school capacity, programs and attendance, transportation issues and other factors. A decision by the school board is likely within a month or two.
Vallejo and other Solano County communities are treasure troves of early-day California history. The “Solano Chronicles” columns, running every other Sunday in the Times-Herald and on my Facebook page, highlight various aspects of that history. Source references are available upon request. If you have local stories or photos to share, email me at genoans@ hotmail.com. You also can send any material care of the Times-Herald, 420 Virginia St.; or the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, 734 Marin St., Vallejo.