History of William H. Crocker School

William Henry Crocker was born in January of 1861 in Sacramento, California. His father, Charles Crocker, was a founder of the Central Pacific Railroad which was tasked with building the western portion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The Crocker family had a major influence on California and the United States. William was the president of Crocker National Bank that was headquartered in San Francisco. After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, Crocker National Bank supported the rebuilding efforts of San Francisco through loans. His San Francisco home was destroyed and he began to live permanently in Hillsborough. His "New Place" in Hillsborough, built around 1910, sat on over 500 acres and included a 12-bedroom home with dairy cows on site. Crocker died in 1937, and his estate was controlled by his heirs in a holding company called the Provident Securities Company.

With a growing school age population in the 1940s, Hillsborough was in need of more classrooms. The school district took a 5 year option to buy acreage from Provident Securities Company in 1943 and it was noted at the time in a San Mateo Times article that the price for the land was "far under present market value." With South School crowded and wartime restrictions lifted, a new Hillsborough school was ordered to be built on 15 acres of land purchased by the school district in 1945. The Crocker family was continuing their efforts to support their community through the sale of this land at a reduced cost to the school district. After a bond was passed in 1948, ground was broken for North School a year later and was dedicated on November 14, 1950.

With the population boom in Hillsborough brought on by the subdivision of the large estates, Hillsborough needed more schools. West School was opened in 1955 and still yet another school was needed. A report on expected student growth in town predicted a 50% increase in students in four years and the schools would be 28 classrooms short. A $900,000 school bond was passed in March of 1957 that was backed by many families including the Crocker family. The school district decided that the new school would be just for 7th and 8th graders, but no location was known at the time of the decision. In June of 1957, four and a quarter acres of land were purchased by the district from Provident Securities for $60,000. In the land deed for this transaction that was recorded in August of 1958, there is mention of other land transfers between Provident Securities and the Hillsborough School District. The Legal Description of this transactions mentions the 4.2635 acres of land that were conveyed to the Hillsborough School District. Clearly, there had been a good relationship between the Crocker family and the local public school district. In November of 1957, the Hillsborough School Board decided to honor William H. Crocker by naming the school for him that was to be built on land from his estate. The requests to name the school after Crocker came from "parent and teacher organizations."

In March of 1958 the contract to build the William H. Crocker school was awarded and construction began immediately. The school for just 7th and 8th graders was planned to be opened in January of 1959. The 7th and 8th grade students in the district were temporarily housed at North at the start of the 1958-1959 school year and when Crocker opened, they were moved to the new school site. According to the Spring of 1989 Chalk Talk Newsletter, Crocker opened its doors on April 1, 1959.

Around 1965, six more rooms were added to Crocker's campus. According to the HCSD website, the school went through a major building project in 1972 when the library, gym, and science classrooms were added. In addition to the new buildings, 6th graders were added to the school that year. According to Arlene Holt, a teacher at Crocker from 1972-2006, the first year with 6th graders "was a huge transition year." She stated, "no one was sure how 6th graders would fit into the mix and basically they were kept totally separate (separate teachers, separate recesses, and separate lunch periods). " The Boutique and Villager covered the opening of Crocker to the 6th graders in their August 1972 issue.

Crocker 1959

This image is from a yearbook from 1959. This shows the first phase of building for Crocker Middle School with the 14 classrooms, multi-use room, and offices.

Crocker Gym Under Construction in 1971

1971-1972 Yearbook was dedicated to the work crew who led the major construction projects at Crocker.

Crocker School in 1959

Crocker School in 1985

Oral History Notes about New Place and the Crocker Estate

Written by Charlie Crocker, Grandson of William H. Crocker

I had the pleasure and privilege of living part of the time at New Place, now the BCC, for a number of years as a kid, roughly between 1940 and 1957. It was called New Place because the family homes in SF were destroyed in the earthquake, and San Mateo /Burlingame was regarded as a safe place to start again. The property was classic 19th century run as a kind of independent fiefdom. Several hundred acres with a man made lake to supply water, 4 separate orchards for fruit and vegetables, stables, a very large staff…all to manage a big house and some 50 acres of lovely gardens. A great place for a kid to play. I remember visiting the stables and a large building on one border of the property that supported the staff that lived on the property which served as a kind of dormitory and kitchen. As stables became obsolete and the gardens were allowed to shrink owning that portion of the property became unnecessary. Someone else will have an exact date, but my guess is that sometime in the mid 1950’s my father, together with his brother and sisters agreed to donate the acreage to the school district in their father’s name. As a further fun note my grandmother attended an auction near Lake Como in the late 1920’s where she purchased a copy of the famous Fountain of the Turtles located in Rome. The copy was installed at New Place and I remember playing in it as a child. The same foursome contributed the fountain to San Francisco when New Place was sold, and it now sits in the City’s Huntington Park.

May 25, 2023

Written by Bailey Meyer, Hillsborough resident for over 60 years

When my parents moved to Hillsborough in 1956 they joined the current location of the BCC which was the former home of the Crocker family. The previous club had been in lower Hillsborough and had been destroyed in a fire earlier in the 50s. The location of Crocker School and North had formerly been where they kept their dairy cows. Further up the hill to the west, where several private homes and the 7th hole of the golf course now are, was where their large fruit orchard was located. Also, in that area was apparently a chicken farm. They had a large beef cattle operation up to Skyline and over to Nueva School. Crocker Lake was created by building a dam as was the now pretty dry lake formed by the dam on Macadamia. Both were intended for water for the cattle. Mrs. Crocker was a “tree lover” and many of the trees on what was formerly their property were collected by Mrs. Crocker on her many travels. She would have them shipped home. There used to be a some and maybe still are where North School is and around the entrance gates. There are several around the club house and up by Crocker Lake

June 14, 2023

Other Historical Notes

The Burlingame Country Club began purchasing land that was part of the Crocker estate. In 1945 the BCC acquired 14.5 acres of land after the school district purchased land that was eventually used for North School. The BCC purchased the New Place home and remodeled it to become the clubhouse in 1954.

William H. Crocker School in Hillsborough was not the only school in the area with a Crocker name. There was Crocker Junior High in San Francisco in the 1920s and closed in 1930 as it was deemed a fire trap. In Daly City, there was Crocker Elementary school. In 1957, Crocker Elementary in South San Francisco was a new school. The Crocker family was very prominent and they owned a lot of land in Bay Area and California. It is unclear what Crocker family member these schools are named for.

Sources:

About HCSD / Welcome to HCSD, www.hcsdk8.org/domain/37. Accessed 11 Aug. 2023.

The Caroland's Gatehouse – Then and Now - Hillsborough, www.hillsborough.net/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/110. Accessed 12 Aug. 2023.

Postel, Mitchell. History of the Burlingame Country Club. Burlingame Country Club, 1982.

“The San Mateo County Historical Association Online Collections Database.” Online Collections | San Mateo County Historical Association, historysmc.pastperfectonline.com/byperson? keyword=Crocker%2C%2BWilliam%2BHenry. Accessed 11 Aug. 2023.

Spring 2010 La Peninsula - San Mateo County History Museum, historysmc.org/wp- content/uploads/2020/08/La- Peninsula-Hillsborough-Spring-2010.pdf. Accessed 12 Aug. 2023.

“W. H. Crocker Dies, Banker on Coast; Head of San Francisco House Bearing His Name, He Helped Restore City after Quake.” The New York Times, 26 Sept. 1937, www.nytimes.com/1937/09/26/archives/w-h-crocker- dies-banker-on-coast-head-of-san-franciscohouse.html.

“William H. Crocker, 1861-1937.” University of California Press, 1 Dec. 1937, online.ucpress.edu/ch/article abstract/16/4/383/104527/William-H-Crocker-1861-1937redirectedFrom=PDF.

San Mateo Times Archives

San Francisco Examiner Archives

San Mateo Historical Society Archives

Conversation with Arlene Holt, September 2023

The Village Newspaper, August 31, 1971

Crocker Middle School Yearbooks

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