When No. 2 Schoolhouse was More than a Road

Here’s the month­ly His­to­ry Col­umn for Sep­tem­ber from San Juan His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety and Museum…

Island schools are back in full swing and we can’t help but look fond­ly upon school pho­tos from long ago. There is a lot to see in these two pho­tographs tak­en at No. 2 School­house over 100 years ago. We are most drawn to the cir­ca 1900 image of stu­dents and their teach­ers. Who can help us iden­ti­fy them? Please leave a com­ment here or con­tact the San Juan His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety and Muse­um.

We know the three Flem­ing sib­lings (Clarence, front row left edge; May, front row in white dress; Ray, sec­ond row right edge) and the four Guard sib­lings (Gladys, front row left; Flo­rence, front row right; Roy, sec­ond row cen­ter tallest boy; Harold next to him on the right). The remain­ing girl in the front row cen­ter posi­tion is Amelia Pfiffn­er. They are posed in front of the “old school­house,” a squared log, rus­tic school built in the late 1870s and fea­tured in the sec­ond photograph.

By 1889, school enroll­ment had grown quite a bit and a larg­er, more mod­ern school­house was built next to the log school. Class­es were then split between the two build­ings. Nei­ther school­house is stand­ing today where they once were, close to the road’s cor­ner with San Juan Val­ley Road. But you can see three oth­er pio­neer school­hous­es on the island: each one active­ly used for oth­er forms of enrich­ment at Roche Har­bor Resort and San Juan Vineyards.

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