Some of you are old enough to remember: School Days, School Days, Good old golden rule days! Written by Byron Harlan and first recorded in 1907, it is the perfect song for our Funday Monday as our adventures in Acton Ca. take us back over 130 years.
Just before we reach Soledad Cyn Rd, we turn off Crown Valley Rd on a little side street and follow it up a hill where it dead-ends at our destination, the original Red Brick School House known as Soledad School.
Donated and built by Acton pioneers, the Duehren family, from bricks hand made in Acton, the Soledad School was dedicated on October 12, 1890. The new red brick schoolhouse was built on the same location, replacing the Little White School House originally built of wood in 1881 by the Union Religious & Moral Society of Acton that would later become the Acton Community Presbyterian Church.
The Soledad School served the children of homesteaders, ranchers, farmers, and miners in the Acton and surrounding areas for almost 50 years until the new Acton School on Crown Valley Rd was opened in 1938. The new Acton Elementary school was built by the United States Works Progress Administration, part of the American New Deal and 2nd New Deal, presidential orders of then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, employing millions of jobseekers to build public works projects across the country following the Great Depression.
After the opening of the new school in 1938, the original red brick schoolhouse was transitioned into a private residence and remains so to this day.
It was so much fun stepping back in time over 130 years and discovering how closely our local history here in Acton is tied in with America’s history. Happy January to all, stay safe.
