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Bennett Valley beat Santa Rosa to its own name, incorporating as the Santa Rosa School District in 1852, forcing the city to create the Courthouse School District for schools closer to the center of town.
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The first Lewis School District structure was built in 1860 on the corner of Lewis Road and Cemetery Lane (now Franklin Avenue) on land provided by John Lewis that he had purchased from Marcus West. In 1916, it was deemed overcrowded and the 56-year old structure was replaced with a new school that opened in1922 on Lewis Road at Lomitas Avenue (now Chanate Road). It closed in 1980 when Hidden Valley Elementary School opened. -
1865 articles mention a school tax and a new school being built across from the "Hood" house on the "road to Sonoma". Both appear to be about the Fourth Street School. In 1906, the school is referred to as the "Fremont School" in a newspaper article. In 1924, the school was replaced by the newly built Fremont Grammar School located on the old Pacific College site.
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The Southern Pacific Methodists left Vacaville during the Civil War as residents in that city disliked its southern roots. In 1871, they built a college in Santa Rosa, because the governing board felt it would be a "more friendly atmosphere." It stood on College Avenue (named in its honor) where Santa Rosa Junior High was later built. It existed until 1900 when the property was sold. -
Built by the Campbellites in 1872 on a five-acre site on B Street. By1879 it sat empty, the Campbellites having abandoned it. ( Gaye LeBaron,10/21/1979 Press Democrat.) -
Court House School was built "on the road to Sonoma across from George Hood's house" (today, read: Fremont Park). In 1874, the two-story Fourth Street School was built on the same site, pushing the old Court House School building to the rear of the property. -
Classes began in1878, but the school wasn't built (on Humboldt Street) until 1895. it was the pioneer secondary school in the community. Destroyed by fire in 1921. -
Two years after it closed, the Christian College on B Street became the western headquarters for the Sisters of the Order of St. Ursula, a "Selected (boarding) School for Girls". They relocated from Brown County, Illinois at the behest of the Rev. John Conway, a pastor of St. Rose Catholic Church. In 1931, the college re-opened as Ursuline High School. In 1958, when a new school was built north of town, the old school building on B Street was demolished. G. LeBaron,10/21/1979 Press Democrat. -
Santa Rosa Business College was opened in 1899 by James Sweet a former mayor of the city. It closed in 1935, five years after his death. Razed in 1937. -
The Burbank School was built on South A Street at Ellis Street in the 1907 and named for Luther Burbank, the popular plant wizard. Only 31 years later in 1938, it was considered a fire trap since children in classrooms on the second and third floors would have to exit using a rickety wood staircase. After a bond measure to build a new school passed, the old school was condemned and torn down in 1940. -
Annexed into the Santa Rosa School District in the 1910, but operating before then. Closed in the 1970s. -
Named after John Lewis who arrived in Sonoma County in 1846 and donated the land for the school. Dedicated December 29, 1922. Built by local architect W. J. Meeker in the Mission Revival style. Closed as when Hidden Valley elementary school opened in 1980. -
One of the first schools built in Santa Rosa was the one built on Davis and 8th Streets in 1885. Called West School first, Davis Street School second, and
finally Lincoln School. By 1922 it was considered a fire hazard in need of rebuilding and expansion onto what was the Simonnini property. Bonds were sold to provide funding. The new school was designed by W.H. Weeks and opened in September 1923. -
The "new" SRHS opened in 1924. The Brick Gothic design was created by W. H. Weeks. It was the only public high school in the city until 1958. Located on the adjacent property, was a part of Santa Rosa Junior College used the high school campus until 1927. -
In the Fall of 1924, the new Fremont School structure opened on the old Pacific College site. Property where the old school was located becomes Fremont Park in 1931. In 1950, Santa Rosa Junior High, which had opened in the former high school annex building on Humboldt Street 10 years earlier, traded school sites with Fremont. Fremont on Humboldt was severely damaged in the 1969 earthquake and closed. It reopened in portable buildings on the same site in the fall of 1986. -
The SRJC was formed in 1918 and initially used the high school and then Fremont elementary school after the high school burned down in 1921 for its students. In 1927 it moved onto its own campus. -
Opened in 1931 on church property at 9th and A Streets. Condemned after the 1983 earthquake. Repurposed to church offices and event center in the 1990s. -
Located on Annex Street, the school served 7th and 8th grade students, eventually adding 9th grade students 1950 when it switched with the Fremont elementary students and moved into that school located on E Street at College where Santa Rosa Middle School eventually operated. -
Opened in 1948. Walter Proctor, was the developer of Proctor Terrace subdivision. -
By the 1950s Doyle Park School (named for Exchange Bank's President Frank Doyle), and Steele Lane School honoring the Steele family, whose hop yards were north of Santa Rosa opened. -
Opened in 1954, the second junior high school in Santa Rosa was named for Herbert Slater a Press Democrat reporter. In 1910, Slater was elected and served two terms as assemblyman and eight terms as state senator. Blinded in a tire-changing accident in 1919, he was known as the "blind senator" and became a champion of the handicapped. As chairman of the Senate Education Committee, he authored landmark public school legislation that earned him the respect of school officials. -
Named for HILLIARD COMSTOCK a lawyer in Santa Rosa who in 1920 was elected to the Santa Rosa Board of Education. In the nine years he served as chairman, Santa Rosa schools annexed 28 rural schools in the surrounding area to the high school district and established Santa Rosa Junior College. In 1929, he resigned from the school board to accept an appointment to the Superior Court. He served Sonoma County justice in that capacity for a record 35 years, much of it as presiding judge.
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Brook Hill Elementary School was built in 1961.
Cook Junior High School - 1950s -
Hidden Valley opened in 1975.
Piner High School - 1966. -
HELEN MILLER LEHMAN, whose name graces a
Westside elementary school built in 1969, was the first woman to be so honored. She had great interest in education, particularly in the arts. She was a 16-year member of the Santa Rosa school board, a founding president of the Sonoma County Pen Women, poets and prose writers of the
early 1930s, and a prolific writer. At
the time of her death in 1954, she had published more than 5,000 magazine stories and poems. -
Gaye LeBaron columns on school names, etc.- The Press Democrat, Jan. 18, 1981, Sept. 18, 1985, Nov. 21, 1993. Jeff Elliott article on Comstock Family with photos. Comstock High School will close in June 2026 - PD article June 5, 2025