Let the school bell ring. The latest work at the old one-room Tassajara School has been completed by Shapell Homes, which rebuilt the stable and added a functional restroom behind the school.
The school, opened in 1889, is probably the only site in the Valley that looks much the way it did in the old days, noted Beverly Lane, curator of the Museum of the San Ramon Valley and a board member of the East Bay Regional Park District.
“The restroom looks like a period building,” Lane said.
The old stable and another shed that housed a woodshop had been fenced off for safety some time ago, said Roxanne Lindsay, a member of the board of directors of the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, which owns and maintains the property.
They were worried about the children attending the museum’s One-Room School Program, which began in 1995. Each spring third-grade classes, close to 2,000 students, attend the school for a day of living history. They also wanted to make the site authentic for the program.
“We started getting bids to restore (the old stable) but they were very high,” said Lindsay. “Because the fire department operates on taxpayer money, it wasn’t a legitimate expense (for them).”
They hired someone to take down the structures in 2004, and Gordon Rasmussen, a former student at the one-room schoolhouse, stored the wood at his nearby ranch.
Lane approached Chris Truebridge, a Danville resident and president of Shapell Homes, to ask if the company would be interested in helping, he recalled.
“I have a pretty good pool of civic-minded contractors who were willing to join in and do it at cost,” Truebridge said. “Shapell picked up the costs of material and labor.”
He said Lane provided photographs and construction details.
“We went ahead and worked off those pictures pretty much,” Truebridge said.
Shapell provides handicapped accessible restrooms at all its models, he explained, so he ordered an extra one for the school grounds, with vertical siding and a roof to match the old schoolhouse. They also put new roofs on the defunct boys and girls outhouses.
The onsite coordinator was Tim Wright, who is project manager at Gale Ranch, working with CBC Framing, Pacific Rim Plumbing, Peterson Painting, and Peterson and Dean Roofing.
The school, which is located on Finley Road off Camino Tassajara, was closed in 1946 when the Tassajara School District merged with the Danville Union School District. In 1957 the school was deeded to the Tassajara Fire District, which was under the purview of the county Board of Supervisors, and staffed by local residents who volunteered as firefighters.
Gordon Rasmussen, 71, stood in the schoolyard last week and recalled going to school there until it closed, sending him to attend seventh grade “in town.”
“It’s our part of history,” said Rasmussen, recalling the work to keep the building functioning as a community center, where for many years residents voted and meetings were held by 4H and the volunteer fire department. “Everybody had a love for the school.”
Rasmussen recalled the building being rented out for $10, and a big community picnic held each July.
“Everybody pitched in,” he said. “I still have the long rope we used for a tug of war.”
Vandalism became a problem, Rasmussen said, and the windows were broken. When the roof began leaking, which threatened the inside of the building, the fire district paid half of the expense for a new roof and the community held fundraisers for the rest. It was also a community effort to find a construction crane to lift up the old schoolhouse and build a new foundation.
“We were mostly ranchers working on it,” noted Rasmussen, explaining they were used to constructing and repairing their own buildings. “Then we started working on the windows.”
They also put up lights, inside and out, which halted the vandalism.
“The community did it,” Rasmussen said. “Not the fire district or the school district.”
Everyone can learn more about the school at an exhibit called “The One-Room School House” that opens today at the museum, 205 Railroad Ave., Danville, and runs through Sept. 27.
The school marm program has been renting portable outhouses for the children to use as they take part in school life, circa 1890, being taught by Mistress Joan Kurtz. But now, with the new restroom, the museum will be spared the expense and inconvenience.
