Month: November 2006

Posted on

Let’s Take A Field Trip! [1924]: Part I

Flowers.jpegDrawing of Pescadero High’s colors by a Pescadero student, 1920s

It was spring 1924 in the tiny village of Pescadero. The cattle grazed peacefully., the brook reflected the clear blue sky and the wild buttercups and daisies competed for attention.

At the high school some 20 students and their three teachers reminisced about the field trip the science class took to the Portland Cement Company’s plant at nearby Davenport, a picturesque coastal village nine miles north of Santa Cruz.

More than a dozen students and Miss Kartheiser, their instructor, had piled into three cars for the ride to Davenport. The road was narrow and not one automobile was encountered.

The day was picture perfect–and Miss Kartheiser stopped the convoy to pick wildflowers for the botany class. Resuming the journey, the caravan headed south–and all went well until there was a sharp crack followed by a discouraging “pfffffttttt.”

…To Be Continued…

Posted on

The Historic Zaballa House, A B& B I love…

because, for one good reason, they welcome pets.

These are old photos of the Z-House, located on Main Street, near the concrete bridge (built in 1900) and across the street from the Pasta Moon Restaurant–the one in color was taken in the 1970s.

Z-House.jpg

Z-House2.jpg

zaballa house.jpg

Posted on

Tim, from San Mateo, Has A Question

PP.jpg
Hi June,

I live in San Mateo, but very much enjoy the coast, as well as learnng more about the history of the area. I just discovered your web page, and have spent the past 2 hours or so perusing some of your stories!

Here’s a question for you:

About a mile or so N of the Pescadero lighthouse, in the midde of a field, sits a very large concrete wall, about 80′ long, about about 8′ tll. It’s about 3′ thick at the base, tapering up to about 8″ thick at the top.

There’s a very old, paved roadway section (perhaps the original Highway 56/Hwy 1?) running parallel to Cabrillo Hwy on the W which once led to an entrance gate for theis compound. There is an old wooden barn or storage building now built onto the side of this wall.

Any info on what this wall was built for? Someone long ago went to a lot of effort to put it there.

June to Tim: I don’t know.

Tim to June: I expect it was a concrete backstop for a target shooting range used
by the troops who were stationed at the Bolsa Point Military Reservation — a WW-II era
coast defense site that was in the immediate area, and apparently housed troops in the old Portuguese fishing colony buildings just a little further north.

Photo: San Mateo County History Museum–please visit the new galleries–and check out local history in the archives. 650.299.01.04

Posted on

What Was It Like At Grace Ball Secretarial School In San Francisco?

My friend Lynn Kalajian McCloskey tells us:

Lynn.jpg Photo: Lynn Kalajian McCloskey

Do you remember I went to secretarial school in San Francisco- Grace Ball.?…

…Grace Ball (GB) was located at Powell and Sutter above the Owl Drugstore, which had a lunch counter and the best hamburgers.

Grace was a very old woman with extremely bad breath, and when she’d talk to you, she’d pin you up against a wall and her face was about two inches from yours. She
was decrepit.

Her sidekick, Ruth something, was a “little” younger and the drill sergeant type. There were about 100 girls in the school. My class was the rebellious one. We would meet each morning in the shower room and plot our strategy for the day. Nothing really bad ever happened, just prankster type stuff.

Our typing teacher was a small, thin woman – you think nice? Guess again. She was nasty mean and used to walk around with her pointer lightly smacking hands if they were idle. Soone day we took her smacking pointer and threw it in the garbage. She didn’t
know what to do, and we told her the custodians must have accidentally
thrown it away. That’s just one example. Most of the other teachers were
pretty nice.

Grace Ball was a secretarial school but we also took accounting classes.

I hated it there–so did everybody else. I only liked going to GB because I met some great people. Most everyone boarded there, but there were a few of us who lived in the City or on the Peninsula. We disliked it– but had fun flaunting the rules. We were
devilish.

You probably wonder why were we there.. we were biding our time waiting for something better to come along….

Posted on

PedroMtnRd_2.jpg

Photo: That’s me, standing beside the jeep…on the old, very bumpy Pedro Mtn Rd, circa 1970s…Guess you can’t see me…but I was there….

And here’s Pedro Mtn Road when it was much newer…1915?

PedroMtnRd_3.jpg

Posted on

Signs Of A Different Kind On This Old Moss Beach Store

Can you see the reflection of the old Moss Beach schoolhouse in the windows? There’s an ad for “California Seeds”, Bass-Hueter paint, mixed and ready for use, and on sale at “here”–and two other signs, both of which say: “For Sale Below Cost”.

HseinMB.jpg

MBbldg.jpg Photo: Is this the same building?

MBSchool.jpg The Moss Beach Grammar School–the reflection seen in the windows of the building above.