Old Schoolhouse Photo Has A Story

The lovely image of the old Gaskill School made me think that readers might want to know more about this survivor, empty now more than 75 years.

The school, in an area then called Hermitage, was named for early settler Silas Gaskill.

It was the eastern most school district in that part of the county organized in 1860. The first Gaskell school was on a flat place on a south slope of a hill west of Hwy. 128 about one mile north of the existing school according to Alva Ingram. In 1866 there were 45 kids. When it was moved or rebuilt at this current location was not noted. (What was noted was that Silas Gaskill shot and killed a stranger in 1869, was arrested, posted bail, then fled the county).

In 1899 one and a half acres were obtained at this current site located halfway between Hermitage and Haehl Hill. In 1903 there were 25 kids (all White) and the teacher earned $60 a month The teacher in 1915, Laurence Hazel McCready Pittman and in an oral history interview she said that with a note from home the kids could swim in the creek before lunch. Parents were farmers and sheep ranchers. Fall session was over in November as it was too mountainous and they had a long winter vacation and started again in the spring. Student population varied, in 1931 there were only 9 students,

By the 1940s, parents wanted their kids in a school with grades and joined the AV School District. But the Gaskell School faced another problem.

The state of California passed a law ins 1947 that said all schools must have flush toilets and there was not enough land to put a septic system in so the school closed and the kids were bussed. The school was offered as a museum by the Glenn Johnson family if it could be moved to what is now the AV Veterans Hall grounds, but Caltrans said it was too wide to move on the highway and it was too costly to dismantle and reassemble so the idea was dropped.

Stories and facts like those above can be found in the five volumes of “What Became of the Little Red Schoolhouse?” produced 35 years ago by the Mendocino County Historical Society and the Mendocino Coast Genealogical Society. Local museums and libraries have reference copies to browse.