Las Lomitas Elementary School District

They were times none of us can remember and can scarcely imagine when the statistics are presented. Ninety-five percent of births took place at home. The average life expectancy in the United States was forty-seven. The leading causes of death were pneumonia and influenza, tuberculosis and diarrhea only then followed by heart disease and stroke.

 

A tiny fourteen percent of homes had bathtubs, and only eight percent had a telephone. There was a grand total of 8000 cars in the country and a scant 144 miles of paved roads.

The average wage was 22 cents an hour, and the average annual salary was between $200 and $400. Yet eighteen percent of households had at least one domestic servant. Only six percent of all American citizens had graduated from high school. Sugar cost four cents a pound and coffee fifteen cents; eggs fourteen cents a dozen. Milk was delivered in horse-drawn carriages and dipped from a large container into each customer’s pan.

California was the 21st most populous state with 1.4 million residents. Iowa had more people! The great San Francisco earthquake was still two years away. A furious local typhoid epidemic had just wound down. Two hundred thirty-six people had been diagnosed with the disease when the population of the general area was no more than 6000 and the nearest hospital was in San Francisco. Officials felt that many illnesses and even deaths were never reported in outlying districts such as that along the Alameda.

The area that became the Las Lomitas School District was an oasis of quiet, but the promise of more lively activity was just around the corner. Large estates in the neighborhood that became Atherton in 1923 had gardeners and servants. The few houses along the Alameda were small and were occupied largely by families of those workers. A few subdivisions were being laid out. Plans were in the works to turn the Altschul estate into La Loma Park, which promised elegant homes on sites unsurpassed anywhere in the valley. Properties were beginning to sell for $500 to $2000 an acre in the Barney tract. The large house of the Avy family sold for $19,000. Today’s Sharon Heights was still a few years away from becoming the Sharon estate with its mansion and elaborate grounds.

When the Searsville school on Sand Hill Road closed in 1894, the choices for school children were going to the Redwood City Grammar School on the site of today’s Fox Theater, to Central School on the site of the Cadillac Agency on El Camino in Menlo Park or to the new Portola School way out on Portola Road—each a long way for youngsters to travel every day. The parents banded together and devised a petition for a new district. Their efforts failed in 1896, but in 1904 the residents won the right to form their new district. They called it Las Lomitas, the little hills. The little schoolhouse they built soon became the center of the neighborhood, and the student population rose quickly.

The story of these one hundred years is told here primarily through the memories of people who have had a close connection with the schools in some way and for some period of time. It is our hope that readers can elicit from their words more than from a mere recitation of facts the true history and spirit of a school district that has had a special place in the hearts of most who have passed through its doors.