A century ago, going to school was a privilege; attending high school was rare. A high school education wasn't guaranteed until the middle of the 20th century. The desert community in the first half of the 20th century worked diligently through major obstacles to provide a high school education for its children. Since then, countless thousands of students have matriculated from Palm Springs High School.
The framers of California's first Constitution in 1849 set the standards for the state's role in education. It was Miss Katherine Finchy who set the pattern and manner of education in the Coachella Valley. Arriving in Palm Springs on a "sweltering September day in 1922," the young schoolteacher, recently graduated from Occidental College, pulled into the Whitewater train station ready to tackle her first teaching assignment.
In her memoir, "A School on the Desert in the Roaring Twenties," Finchy recalled shielding her eyes from the blowing sand as she was driven across the desert in a buckboard wagon by Marcus Pete, a local Cahuilla. She was taken directly to the schoolhouse and greeted by Miss Willie, the other teacher at the school. The two women shared a home that was located on the school grounds, referred to as the "teacherage."
People came out to welcome the new teacher to town and gathered on Main Street (now Palm Canyon Drive) for a celebration. That day, cameras were set up to film Tom Mix galloping down the street for a western movie. But the crowd was more interested in continuing down Main Street into the dance hall at Mutascios's Restaurant for Miss Finchy's welcome party.
The first school in the village of Palm Springs was located at East and Lemon streets, now Indian Canyon Drive and Amado Road. The students were divided into two groups with the primary grades in one classroom with Miss Willie, and the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades in the other classroom with Miss Finchy.
Curriculum included English grammar, Spanish, algebra, general science, U.S. history and physical education, including activities that only the desert could provide like riding the burros that roamed around the sagebrush and cactus patch across the street from the school. Lunchtime rodeos and bareback riding contests provided ample exercise as well as amusement for the children.
As the population grew, the Palm Springs Desert School was built with donated land and funds from P.T. and Frances Stevens, the developer of the El Mirador Hotel and his wife, at Palm Canyon Drive and Alejo Road. Soon after it was completed in 1927, Frances passed away and the school was renamed in her memory.
Education beyond eighth grade required an arduous trip to Banning.
The Desert Sun newspaper was only a few years old when in 1936 publisher Carl Barkow reported: "The high school situation has assumed serious proportions, and if the members of the Banning Union High School board of trustees are able to work out the problem to the satisfaction of all concerned, they will have proved themselves super men and women. The Division of Architecture, Department of Public Works, of the State of California, has inspected the high school building in Banning, and has declared the building is unsafe and should be replaced by a new earth-quake-proof structure."
But it was the Depression and there was much suffering and little money.
"To persuade the taxpayers to vote bonds for a new high school when there is still $64,000 plus interest of equal amount, owing on the building that is to be demolished, is just one of the problems the board may have to decide. A $25,000 bond issue was voted in 1914. Of this amount $5,000 is still outstanding, at 6 per cent interest. The last of these bonds will not be retired until 1940. In 1927, $75,000 in 5 per cent bonds were voted. Only $10,000 of this indebtedness has been paid, $59,000 still owing, and the debt will not be paid in full until 1947. The state law clearly outlines the responsibilities of the school board. It says that if a hazardous condition exists, and the board has knowledge of it, the district is liable for any injuries that may result from such a condition. The board has knowledge of the danger, because it has been notified and warned by the state architectural board.
"The citizens of Palm Springs are determined they shall have their own high school, or at least a branch high school or junior high. The Chamber of Commerce went on record unanimously Tuesday evening in favor of a first-class high school in Palm Springs. 'We don't want our children to have to travel 50 miles every day to go to school, especially when the school they must attend is unsafe,' said Earl Coffman, which seemed to be the consensus of opinion of the others present. It is ridiculous to expect Palm Springs to transport its high school students 45 miles daily to a smaller community. This desert community is entitled to its own high school, and I believe the citizens of Banning will see the justice of their demands. The law specifies that no part of a high school district can withdraw from a district, unless the assessed valuation of the remaining part of the district is at least $10,000,000. The assessed valuation of Banning, Cabazon, and Edom combined was $2,191,175 when the 1935-36 assessments were made, and of Palm Springs at the same time, $3,311,050. Thus Banning pays 33% and Palm Springs 60%, to retire bonds or for new construction. The state pays most of the cost of maintenance at the present time from the 3% sales tax receipts.'"
Palm Springs could not withdraw from the high school district unless a special enabling act was passed by the state legislature. And even if Palm Springs could obtain that permission, it was still on the hook for its portion of the $64,000, plus the interest, of the outstanding indebtedness, where the interest nearly equaled the principal.
"Palm Springs having 60 per cent of the assessed valuation of the property in the high school district, must pay 60 per cent of the indebtedness, and probably more, because Palm Springs is growing much more rapidly than Banning. It has been estimated that a high school or junior high in Palm Springs would cost $75,000. A bond issue must carry by two-thirds majority. Banning has approximately 1200 registered voters, and Palm Springs has 750. Keeping in mind the $64,000 indebtedness (plus interest) — will a sufficient number of the 1200 Banning voters approve a $75,000 bond issue for the construction of a branch high or junior high in Palm Springs? Or, by the same token, will the 750 Palm Springs voters approve the construction of a $100,000 high school in Banning, and thus add that much more to the indebtedness, of which Palm Springs must pay 60 per cent? I believe the citizens of the two communities can and will get together on a plan that will satisfy both.
"Frank V. Shannon, chairman of the high school board and a resident of Palm Springs, believes the solution is a branch high school in the desert metropolis. He believes the voters of all parts of the district are sufficiently fair minded to concede the justice of Palm Springs demands and will consent to the construction of the Palm Springs branch, thus avoiding the constant expense and inconvenience of transporting 75 or more Palm Springs high school students 45 miles daily. But that doesn't entirely solve the problem, for Banning must still have a new high school to replace the unsafe structure now in use.
"There seems to be only one solution. Uncle Sam must come to the rescue. The high school board has applied for an 80 per cent WPA grant, to match 20 per cent of district funds. The district has approximately $20,000 on hand, which, added to $80,000 government funds, would make $100,000 available under the slow and expensive WPA method. But, if the government does not help — what then? Someone wise as King Solomon must find a solution. Maybe Frank Shannon is that man. Whoever he is, our sympathies go out to him. …"
Barlow went on to explain property valuations in Banning and Palm Springs, summarizing that "Deputy County Assessor Frank Shannon estimates that Palm Springs' assessed valuation will increase a half million dollars this year" explaining in a sub-headline "Banning Has the Children, Palm Springs Has Wealth."
It wasn't huge numbers of children and hardly the wealth of Riverside or San Diego. The desert had 75 children in the four upper grades and Banning had 257. In 1936, members of the elementary school boards of Banning, Palm Springs, Cabazon and Edom and the Banning Union High School board met at The Desert Inn.
Shannon pleaded, "The people of Palm Springs do not want to transport their high school students nearly 50 miles a day on the most dangerous highway in the country, through all kinds of weather. Palm Springs has paid more than its share of the school indebtedness, it is paying more than its share of maintaining the school, and it is having more than its share of the inconveniences." No one disagreed with him. and it seemed those present were in sympathy with the Palm Springs situation – but how to solve it was the problem.
Depending on the inherent fairness of the voters of the district, they bravely put the measure on the ballot. Given the complex circumstances and encumbrances, it was a miracle that Palm Springs got its own high school. Then, the federal government made the difference.
School construction was approved in October 1936. "Only the signature of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was lacking at the time to complete the transaction and release the appropriation. The President is on a speaking tour of the country and will probably be unable to affix his signature until after the election. Plans for the new buildings were drawn by G. Stanley Wilson, architect of Riverside … after the voters of the high school district approved the project at the ballot box."
The federal government contributed, and local boosters donated for the "purchase of grounds, erection of buildings, etc. … Minor matters, such as landscaping, may be handled by WPA labor, direct."
They built a long rectangular, graceful Spanish building that offered a shaded colonnade along its southern exposure to shelter students from the afternoon sun when moving from classroom to classroom.
Further expansion of the campus under the design direction of Williams, Williams and Williams happened during World War II and the 1950s. Exquisite modern buildings were sited adjacent to the Spanish colonnade that paralleled Ramon Road. The mix of Spanish and modern buildings reflected the aesthetic of the wider town, with fine architecture in all styles becoming common as wealthy visitors summoned their famous hometown architects to the desert to design their homes and businesses.
The once huge plot of land between Ramon and Baristo Roads and Sunrise and Farrell was quickly built out with new facilities. The campus resembled a small college. By the 1960s, Palm Springs High School was well known to the institutions of higher learning across the country, regularly sending its graduates to top universities all over the country.
Later this month, graduates of the classes of 1964 and 1965 are returning to the desert for a big 60th reunion dinner event on Oct. 26 at the new Thompson Hotel just south of Frances Stevens School.
The privilege of going to high school and graduating 60 years ago is indeed a big deal. Palm Springs was a small town with an extra-large community spirit, accordingly, everyone from the whole decade is cordially invited. If you graduated from Palm Springs High School in the 1960s and are interested in attending, kindly email [email protected] for more information.
Tracy Conrad is president of the Palm Springs Historical Society. The Thanks for the Memories column appears Sundays in The Desert Sun. Write to her at [email protected].
The framers of California's first Constitution in 1849 set the standards for the state's role in education. It was Miss Katherine Finchy who set the pattern and manner of education in the Coachella Valley. Arriving in Palm Springs on a "sweltering September day in 1922," the young schoolteacher, recently graduated from Occidental College, pulled into the Whitewater train station ready to tackle her first teaching assignment.
In her memoir, "A School on the Desert in the Roaring Twenties," Finchy recalled shielding her eyes from the blowing sand as she was driven across the desert in a buckboard wagon by Marcus Pete, a local Cahuilla. She was taken directly to the schoolhouse and greeted by Miss Willie, the other teacher at the school. The two women shared a home that was located on the school grounds, referred to as the "teacherage."
People came out to welcome the new teacher to town and gathered on Main Street (now Palm Canyon Drive) for a celebration. That day, cameras were set up to film Tom Mix galloping down the street for a western movie. But the crowd was more interested in continuing down Main Street into the dance hall at Mutascios's Restaurant for Miss Finchy's welcome party.
The first school in the village of Palm Springs was located at East and Lemon streets, now Indian Canyon Drive and Amado Road. The students were divided into two groups with the primary grades in one classroom with Miss Willie, and the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades in the other classroom with Miss Finchy.
Curriculum included English grammar, Spanish, algebra, general science, U.S. history and physical education, including activities that only the desert could provide like riding the burros that roamed around the sagebrush and cactus patch across the street from the school. Lunchtime rodeos and bareback riding contests provided ample exercise as well as amusement for the children.
As the population grew, the Palm Springs Desert School was built with donated land and funds from P.T. and Frances Stevens, the developer of the El Mirador Hotel and his wife, at Palm Canyon Drive and Alejo Road. Soon after it was completed in 1927, Frances passed away and the school was renamed in her memory.
Education beyond eighth grade required an arduous trip to Banning.
The Desert Sun newspaper was only a few years old when in 1936 publisher Carl Barkow reported: "The high school situation has assumed serious proportions, and if the members of the Banning Union High School board of trustees are able to work out the problem to the satisfaction of all concerned, they will have proved themselves super men and women. The Division of Architecture, Department of Public Works, of the State of California, has inspected the high school building in Banning, and has declared the building is unsafe and should be replaced by a new earth-quake-proof structure."
But it was the Depression and there was much suffering and little money.
"To persuade the taxpayers to vote bonds for a new high school when there is still $64,000 plus interest of equal amount, owing on the building that is to be demolished, is just one of the problems the board may have to decide. A $25,000 bond issue was voted in 1914. Of this amount $5,000 is still outstanding, at 6 per cent interest. The last of these bonds will not be retired until 1940. In 1927, $75,000 in 5 per cent bonds were voted. Only $10,000 of this indebtedness has been paid, $59,000 still owing, and the debt will not be paid in full until 1947. The state law clearly outlines the responsibilities of the school board. It says that if a hazardous condition exists, and the board has knowledge of it, the district is liable for any injuries that may result from such a condition. The board has knowledge of the danger, because it has been notified and warned by the state architectural board.
"The citizens of Palm Springs are determined they shall have their own high school, or at least a branch high school or junior high. The Chamber of Commerce went on record unanimously Tuesday evening in favor of a first-class high school in Palm Springs. 'We don't want our children to have to travel 50 miles every day to go to school, especially when the school they must attend is unsafe,' said Earl Coffman, which seemed to be the consensus of opinion of the others present. It is ridiculous to expect Palm Springs to transport its high school students 45 miles daily to a smaller community. This desert community is entitled to its own high school, and I believe the citizens of Banning will see the justice of their demands. The law specifies that no part of a high school district can withdraw from a district, unless the assessed valuation of the remaining part of the district is at least $10,000,000. The assessed valuation of Banning, Cabazon, and Edom combined was $2,191,175 when the 1935-36 assessments were made, and of Palm Springs at the same time, $3,311,050. Thus Banning pays 33% and Palm Springs 60%, to retire bonds or for new construction. The state pays most of the cost of maintenance at the present time from the 3% sales tax receipts.'"
Palm Springs could not withdraw from the high school district unless a special enabling act was passed by the state legislature. And even if Palm Springs could obtain that permission, it was still on the hook for its portion of the $64,000, plus the interest, of the outstanding indebtedness, where the interest nearly equaled the principal.
"Palm Springs having 60 per cent of the assessed valuation of the property in the high school district, must pay 60 per cent of the indebtedness, and probably more, because Palm Springs is growing much more rapidly than Banning. It has been estimated that a high school or junior high in Palm Springs would cost $75,000. A bond issue must carry by two-thirds majority. Banning has approximately 1200 registered voters, and Palm Springs has 750. Keeping in mind the $64,000 indebtedness (plus interest) — will a sufficient number of the 1200 Banning voters approve a $75,000 bond issue for the construction of a branch high or junior high in Palm Springs? Or, by the same token, will the 750 Palm Springs voters approve the construction of a $100,000 high school in Banning, and thus add that much more to the indebtedness, of which Palm Springs must pay 60 per cent? I believe the citizens of the two communities can and will get together on a plan that will satisfy both.
"Frank V. Shannon, chairman of the high school board and a resident of Palm Springs, believes the solution is a branch high school in the desert metropolis. He believes the voters of all parts of the district are sufficiently fair minded to concede the justice of Palm Springs demands and will consent to the construction of the Palm Springs branch, thus avoiding the constant expense and inconvenience of transporting 75 or more Palm Springs high school students 45 miles daily. But that doesn't entirely solve the problem, for Banning must still have a new high school to replace the unsafe structure now in use.
"There seems to be only one solution. Uncle Sam must come to the rescue. The high school board has applied for an 80 per cent WPA grant, to match 20 per cent of district funds. The district has approximately $20,000 on hand, which, added to $80,000 government funds, would make $100,000 available under the slow and expensive WPA method. But, if the government does not help — what then? Someone wise as King Solomon must find a solution. Maybe Frank Shannon is that man. Whoever he is, our sympathies go out to him. …"
Barlow went on to explain property valuations in Banning and Palm Springs, summarizing that "Deputy County Assessor Frank Shannon estimates that Palm Springs' assessed valuation will increase a half million dollars this year" explaining in a sub-headline "Banning Has the Children, Palm Springs Has Wealth."
It wasn't huge numbers of children and hardly the wealth of Riverside or San Diego. The desert had 75 children in the four upper grades and Banning had 257. In 1936, members of the elementary school boards of Banning, Palm Springs, Cabazon and Edom and the Banning Union High School board met at The Desert Inn.
Shannon pleaded, "The people of Palm Springs do not want to transport their high school students nearly 50 miles a day on the most dangerous highway in the country, through all kinds of weather. Palm Springs has paid more than its share of the school indebtedness, it is paying more than its share of maintaining the school, and it is having more than its share of the inconveniences." No one disagreed with him. and it seemed those present were in sympathy with the Palm Springs situation – but how to solve it was the problem.
Depending on the inherent fairness of the voters of the district, they bravely put the measure on the ballot. Given the complex circumstances and encumbrances, it was a miracle that Palm Springs got its own high school. Then, the federal government made the difference.
School construction was approved in October 1936. "Only the signature of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was lacking at the time to complete the transaction and release the appropriation. The President is on a speaking tour of the country and will probably be unable to affix his signature until after the election. Plans for the new buildings were drawn by G. Stanley Wilson, architect of Riverside … after the voters of the high school district approved the project at the ballot box."
The federal government contributed, and local boosters donated for the "purchase of grounds, erection of buildings, etc. … Minor matters, such as landscaping, may be handled by WPA labor, direct."
They built a long rectangular, graceful Spanish building that offered a shaded colonnade along its southern exposure to shelter students from the afternoon sun when moving from classroom to classroom.
Further expansion of the campus under the design direction of Williams, Williams and Williams happened during World War II and the 1950s. Exquisite modern buildings were sited adjacent to the Spanish colonnade that paralleled Ramon Road. The mix of Spanish and modern buildings reflected the aesthetic of the wider town, with fine architecture in all styles becoming common as wealthy visitors summoned their famous hometown architects to the desert to design their homes and businesses.
The once huge plot of land between Ramon and Baristo Roads and Sunrise and Farrell was quickly built out with new facilities. The campus resembled a small college. By the 1960s, Palm Springs High School was well known to the institutions of higher learning across the country, regularly sending its graduates to top universities all over the country.
Later this month, graduates of the classes of 1964 and 1965 are returning to the desert for a big 60th reunion dinner event on Oct. 26 at the new Thompson Hotel just south of Frances Stevens School.
The privilege of going to high school and graduating 60 years ago is indeed a big deal. Palm Springs was a small town with an extra-large community spirit, accordingly, everyone from the whole decade is cordially invited. If you graduated from Palm Springs High School in the 1960s and are interested in attending, kindly email [email protected] for more information.
Tracy Conrad is president of the Palm Springs Historical Society. The Thanks for the Memories column appears Sundays in The Desert Sun. Write to her at [email protected].
