Ravenswood

From “The History of Ravenswood” by Werner C. Foss, Jr., San Mateo Junion College (1942), pp 53-57, unpublished, with various notes added (enclosed by brackets). The red type highlights items of interest with respect to the history of schools in Menlo Park.

RAVENSWOOD DISTRICT

Town of Ravenswood

In 1848 [more likely 1852, see Albert Shumate in References page] Adams & Company, Bankers and Expressers of San Francisco, acquired 3,673.76 [Shumate states 2,000] acres of land in the Ravenswood district. I. C. Woods, president of that company, foresaw a future in this section of what was then San Francisco County. He persuaded his partners to invest in this section where the proposed Atlantic and Pacific Railway [or was it the San Francisco & San Jose RR?] was to be built in 1851. Woods had teamsters surface the New Bay Road and surveyors lay out five subdivisions on both sides of Bay Road, just short of the proposed Ravenswood Landing. He built the Ravenswood Wharf [at today’s Cooley Landing], an elaborate 75 foot landing out to the deep water of the bay channel. Just when Woods was ready to invest in buildings, the proposed Atlantic and Pacific route fell through.

In 1852 there were rumors that another company was going to take over the proposed route of the Atlantic and Pacific Line. Once again Woods talked his colleagues into investing in this line. They invested heavily and on the proposed town site were erected shacks, hotels and saloons. Woods named the streets after his colleagues who invested in the town, and the lots were 25 x 100 feet in the Woods Subdivision. William Paul, a local merchant, came loaded down with a wagon full of food stuffs and opened the first store in Ravenswood in 1853. Once again the route was abandoned and Woods and Adams and Company were again the goats. As for William Paul, he left Ravenswood and went to Mayfield where he opened the first store there, this time being a big success in his line of business.

The [unincorporated] town of Ravenswood became a ghost town, with the wharf the only construction being of any use. Local farmers bought the buildings for almost nothing. Joshua Leavitt purchased one building which was along the marsh.

This small one-room building was used as the county’s first school. Charles Kavanaugh later purchased one of the hotels built by Woods, and by 1870 there wasn’t anything left of the county’s first town but the foundations showing where a few buildings had once been. Today if one looked for the original town of Ravenswood all he would find would be open fields along Bay Road where the town stood nearly a century ago.

Ravenswood Schools

The first school in San Mateo County was opened in a small shack at the edge of Bay Road in the [unincorporated] town of Ravenswood in 1852. [Presumably this school was financed by “subscription,” i.e. it was private, since there was not yet an organized public school district.] The teacher was a Christian minister who traveled up and down the San Francisco Bay on a small lumber schooner teaching children in out-of-the-way spots. Joshua Leavitt Jr. and a few children from the outskirts of [what would become] Palo Alto and Mayfield came to the Marsh School near the Ravenswood Wharf to receive their education. This school was wrecked 15 years later when Lester Cooley tore it down and made a barn out of the wood.^1,8,11

The second school house was in East Menlo Park, behind the Catholic Church [probably the sacristy of St. Bridget’s Chapel] and was taught by the same minister who taught the Marsh School. This minister lost his life while teaching students aboard the steamer, Jenny Lind, whose boilers blew up just north of the Ravenswood Wharf. When the new [?] Catholic Church was built on Ravenswood Avenue and Public Road [Bridget’s Chapel was on Ravenswood Ave at Middlefield Rd], in West Ravenswood on May 18, 1872, Father Dempsey took over the educational duties of the community. Father Dempsey was relieved of his duties in 1874 when the Creek School [it was on Oak St, now Gilbert Ave, near today’s Nova Ln] was built.

Local landholders got together in 1873 and urged the Board of Supervisors to authorize the establishment of a public school in the Ravenswood district. Lester Cooley, Samuel Carnduff, John T. Doyle, Matthew Crow, Charles Kavanaugh, Jeremiah Clark and Colonel Atherton McKendry were among those who circulated the petition showing that there were some 15 children that could attend the school. Colonel McKendry donated a one-half acre plot of land for construction of the new school.

Colonel McKendry’s land was included in the incorporation Menlo Park on March 23, 1874, and the construction of the new school, to be known as Creek School, since it was situated next to San Francisquito Creek, got underway. When the Creek School opened, Miss Maria E. Laird opened the first classes on Monday, April 20, 1874. Miss laird was transferred to the Coastside and the following year George P. Hartly was appointed the teacher, keeping that job for quite some time. On August 28, 1878, he came to open the school when he noticed it had been broken into. After a careful search, nothing was reported missing. There was about $10 damage in broken windows which was blamed on the local boys.

The local people once again got together on August 5, 1882, to form a new district free from the reconstructed Redwood City School District of August 11, 1861. The Board of Supervisors pointed out that since the Creek School had only a handful of students and it was the only school in the vicinity, they could not form a separate district. It wasn’t until December 12, 1891, that a petition signed by the local farmers, was recognized by the Board of Supervisors and the Ravenswood School District was laid out. The boundaries were to be as follows: Westerly to the Middlefield Road, southerly to the San Francisquito Creek, easterly to the San Francisco Bay, and northerly to the boundary line od the Redwood City and Menlo Park School Districts. The new Ravenswood School District was made official by the Board of Supervisors before their meeting on January 9, 1892.

Wiliam Cooley, William Carnduff and Constable Maloney were made the new District Trustees at the district election of January 14, 1892. On July 16, they drew up plans for a new school house, the grounds to be enlarged to an acre, the building to be 31’ x 59’ with two ante rooms, the school room itself to be 20’ x 40’, and the entire building to be elevated off the ground so the children would have to walk up four big steps. Adjoining the rear of the building would be a 12’ x 14’ library. The building itself was to rest on granite piers and to be constructed of wood, the outside to be covered with 4” rustic siding. The Board of Supervisors approved the new school, and on July 23, 1892, William Cooley announced that he would take bids from the local contractors. William Cooley received three good bids, McBain & Fergeson, Robert Brown, and L. S. Bean. The contract was awarded to McBain & Furgeson for $2,000, since they were well known as school house builders with all work guaranteed. McBain started building the new school on August 10, 1892. The plans called for the school to stand close to Bay Road, but it was decided that the entire building should be moved far enough away from the road for safety’s sake. McBain & Furgeson finished the school construction on February 11, 1893, and on Monday morning, February 18, Miss Nellie Gilcrest opened the new Creek School. This school house took care of the educational facilities of the Ravenswood district until World War I.

Charles Weeks’ reorganization of Ravenswood into a Poultry colony from 1909 to the time of the war brought new families into this district. The Creek School was no longer able to take care of the community, so Charles Weeks donated four acres of his land for the construction of a new school. On July 1, 1918, the local people bonded the district for $20,000. The new Ravenswood School consisted of a big four-room building plus an assembly room for school and town use. The new school attendance soared to one hundred students, tenfold that of old Creek School attendance, but this new school also made way for new developments. In 1922 a second bond issue was raised, this time for $28,000 to convert the auditorium into two classrooms and the construction of a new elaborate auditorium. This auditorium was also used for community gatherings for local civil and religious meetings. As the school attendance passed the 300 mark, a third bond issue was raised in July of 1927. The community decided to raise $20 shares to take care of the educational facilities as they progressed. Today Ravenswood has two schools, one on Bay Road and the other near the Bayshore Highway in North Palo Alto. Since the town of Ravenswood as yet hasn’t any high school, the students upon graduation from grammar school must go to Menlo Park [opened in 1951], Redwood City, Palo Alto or Mayfield to further their education.