The History of Palomares School in The La Verne Leader

I find that one of the best ways to present a history is to use contemporary writing like that which is found in local newspapers. The La Verne Leader began publication in 1910 as The Lordsburg-La Verne Leader, a newspaper that reported on happenings in the city of Lordsburg and the community of La Verne to the north. The newspaper changed its name in 1917 when Lordsburg became La Verne. The community to the north became La Verne Heights.

At the time the grammar school was built in about 1908, its main building was adequate for the number of pupils in the city. The new Sloyd or Manual Arts building that was added in 1913 would have opened up more classroom space in the main building.

This article from the June 6, 1921 issue of the Leader reports on the eighth grade graduation. One of my mom’s older brothers, Homer Jay Kreps, was in that class. There were 24 members. We will soon see an article about a later class to demonstrate the growth of the school.

As time went on, more people came to live in La Verne and it was deemed necessary to expand the main building. By 1922 it was decided to do this by adding a wing of classrooms on both the north and south sides of the old building and remodeling the main building to conform to the new structures. This architect’s drawing appeared in the Leader on March 23, 1922.

This article from the Leader issue of August 24, 1922 tells of the progress to date.

This article from the Leader for May 28, 1925 tells of the coming eighth grade graduation. My mom, Esther M. Kreps, was a member of that class of 33 pupils. Even though that is only nine more than in 1921, it is an almost 38 percent increase over that four year period.

This June 3, 1926 Leader article tells of newly hired teachers. Some of them had long careers in the district.

This July 1, 1926 Leader article tells of re-roofing the central building and a program of general improvement. However, something of more significance, historically, is the mention of the need to handle the overflow of pupils. There is a short-term solution to what is called “The Mexican Problem,” and also the proposal of an additional school.

This September 16, 1926 Leader article tells of the new principal’s program and the teachers for the coming year. You can see by some of the classes that there was already some segregation in the school.

Less than six months later on February 24, 1927 we find a Leader article telling of the decision to build a separate school for the Mexican children.

A week later, on March 3, 1927, we have the following Leader article about funding for the new school.

On March 31, 1927, the Leader ran an article about the new school giving details about construction and proposed costs.

In another post on this blog, these lines give more details about the new school:

In the spring of 1927 bonds for $25,000 were voted by the citizens and a new five room steel and tile building was constructed at the corner of “A” and Palomares streets, especially for the Mexican school population. All of the Mexican children were required to go to this school except those in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. According to law, a principal was appointed for each building, and the office of district superintendent was created.

On the new building $17,000 was expended and the remainder of the bond issue was spent in equipment and rearranging of the rooms of the Lincoln School. An auditorium was extremely necessary and the waste space in the central building of the Lincoln School, including one small classroom, was built into an auditorium with a nice stage and room for 200 people.

In this October 13, 1927 Leader article we find that the school was being used even before its completion. I apologize for the quality of this copy and hope everyone can read it. Let me know if you want clarification.

Palomares School, located at the Southwest corner of Palomares and "A" Streets, is shown at the bottom of this 1952 photo from the La Verne College Lambda yearbook. The L-shaped building was built in 1927 and the straight building below it was added in 1937. The large building to the east is Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, torn down in 1968 to allow for the widening of Arrow Highway.

Even though the school opened in the Fall of 1927, it was not named until 1928. Nor was the "D" Street school named Lincoln until that time, the two schools being referred to as Unit No. 1 and Unit No. 2 of the City Grammar School. This June 21, 1928 Leader article tells of the naming of the schools and the teachers assigned to each for the coming year.

Segregation of the elementary schools ended in 1947 and that Fall all children of the La Verne City School District in Kindergarten and grades one and two began attending Palomares School. Those in grades three through eight attended Lincoln School. In the Fall of 1949 a new primary school went into operation and Palomares School began being used for recreation and other purposes.