Alhambra High Decades Reunion: Let's Start with the History!

Editor’s Note:  The Alhambra Decades Class Reunion, organized through the various Facebook Alhambra groups including “Remembering Martinez”, takes place from August 17-19.  Over 1500 graduates from near and far had signed up for one or more the events before reservations were closed.  The amazing committee has already started decorating Main Street storefronts and is preparing for the various events all of which are filled to absolute capacity.  Regretfully no more reservations can be taken for the Friday night dinner at the Boys and Girls Club, the Rankin Park Barbeque picnic Saturday afternoon and the Car Cruise and Main Street party Saturday evening.  Food is not included Saturday evening but downtown restaurants are very much looking forward to welcoming Alhambra graduates.  Sunday morning’s breakfast at the Boys and Girls club is also fully booked but all graduates are welcome to come to Art in the Park being held that day at Susana Park by the Martinez Arts Association as a separate but related event for which reservations are not required..  In fact, the Remembering Martinez Facebook group met at Art in the Park  last year on the spur of the moment which was the beginning of the planning for this year’s larger Decades Class Reunion..  For more information on the weekend, go to Remembering Martinez.com.

 Naturally an old history teacher (albeit Martinez Junior High) is going to be sure everybody knows about the past.  Rummaging through the files at the Martinez Museum I grabbed up a selection of clippings and lists at random to share during the run-up to the big weekend.  I’ll post them on my Facebook page as well.  Comments, more memories and most of all, pictures are most welcome. 

We’ll start off with a June 7, 1984 News-Gazette column by the late Charlene McRae Perry (AUHS ’40).  By the way, I will try to be consistent in using the initials AUHS for everything prior to 1963 when the Vine Hill, Martinez Elementary and Alhambra Union High School districts unified by a vote of the citizens.  After 1963, the correct initials are AHS. Now I will turn it over to Charlene.

Graduation at Alhambra High School fast approaches and for many of us it is nostalgia time, though the school buildings, the Moorish architecture, the bell tower and spiral pillars that guarded the front steps we remember are long gone.  It was a beautiful building that had to come down for earthquake safety reasons, though members of the demolition crew were heard to say that it would have survived any earthquake that a modern building could live through.  (ED Note:  There will be graduates from the 1940s and 50s at the reunion who firmly believe that and will be very glad to make the case with certainty.)

But, even before that 1921 building was built, Alhambra High School meant another building in another place to another group of graduates. From 1901, the students that had begun school in the old Worth house, first floor at Escobar and Court streets in 1897, and were moved to the new school at Henrietta and Court (now the District Offices and Maintenance site), considered themselves Alhambra students.

It was in 1897 that a group of concerned parents decided that the city needed a school to take students beyond the eighth grade.  An abortive effort had been made in 1893, but that school, meeting at the Grace Episcopal Church, folded after two years.

On July 17, 1897, the parents met and formed the Martinez High School Association, electing Mrs. Lafayette Fish as president, Mrs. Thomas A. McMahon as secretary and Mrs. L. M. Lasell as treasurer.  Within weeks they had secured the Worth homestead for class space and, in August Professor and Mrs. R. C. Bentley began teaching the 22 students who had enrolled. 

The Association expressed hope that a public high school would be established within the year since this one was not tuition free.  Students from within the district paid $10 per month while those outside the district paid $5, probably a concession because of the expense of travel. 

An election in 1898 to establish a union high school district lost by 14 votes so the private school continued to function while the association went back to work to bring the matter before the public again in 1901.  This time the vote to establish the district was passed.  Construction was begun on the lot that had been donated by Julia Fish.  (ED Note:  the parcel donated by the then prominent Fish family contained a proviso that it must always be used for education and if for any reason it was not, the land would revert to the Fish family heirs.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was proposed that the land be sold to pay for a District office and maintenance facility elsewhere in the City.  Charlene Perry and former Martinez elementary school board member Phyllis Wainwright protested because they knew of the Fish proviso.   That was the end of that idea and strong proof of how important it is to know your history!)

It is interesting to note that in the election to create the district while Martinez had voted 188 for and none against, Vine Hill had six yes votes and 12 against.  Yet, when the first class graduated in 1904, at least two of the three graduates – Francis Kelly and Laura Mellerup – were Vine Hill students, both living on large family farms off Pacheco Boulevard.  The other graduate that year was Aileen Murphy.  They received their diplomas from the stage at the Curry and Jones Hall, since the school did not have an auditorium.

It was not the last time that stage was used, and after the (August 1904 downtown) fire destroyed that hall and Curry replaced it with the McMahon-Telfer hall that we are familiar with today, that room became the site of many graduation ceremonies.

With the new school in 1921 boasting a grand auditorium, graduations were held there until the student population outstripped its capacity.  As early as 1940, the football field became home for the festivities, moving into the gym if rained spoiled plans.

Customs, too, have changed with the years.  In the early days, family parties to entertain the celebrants were held.  Later all night parties for the graduates, sponsored by the

P.T. A. and faculty, became popular for the kept the youngsters off the streets and highways.  Now, itt is back to the family gatherings, with the kids taking off on their personal plans later in the evening.  However they celebrate, we think it is fun to look back on our own graduation night – when we were Panthers, not Bull Dogs, and Seniors reigned supreme.  (ED. Note:  a few years after this column was written, parents and community members restored the all-night party --Grad Night -- raising funds and creating outstanding decorations and entertainment each graduation night.)

Charlene McRae Perry, 6/7/84

To pick up where Charlene left off, in the late 1980s Martinez Unified School District voters stepped up and voted by more than the required two-thirds vote to tax themselves so that a new state-of-the art campus could be built.  Soon the District selected a well-known school architectural firm to draw up plans.  I was education beat reporter for the Martinez News-Gazette at the time.  When I went to the first unveiling, I was appalled as a very clear message had been sent out by bond supporters that they wanted the Moorish building of 1921 at least inspirational in the new design. The drawings did not measure up.  For the one time in my life as a reporter, I stepped out of role and spoke strongly about the need to honor that oft-spoken feeling which was heartily supported by the citizens group. I really can’t take credit but at the next meeting, the final drawings indeed were much closer to the look of the beloved 1921 building.

When the new buildings were officially opened in 1994, hundreds of alumni joined current students, parent and faculty to celebrate an outstanding community achievement and a beautiful campus at the base of the Franklin Hills Open Space as well as a source of pride to the entire town.

One last thing:  Martinez Historical Society treasure, Tom Zamaria, who reproduces and enlarges and otherwise makes magic with historical pictures, reproduced the three pictures accompanying this article on five minutes notice.  I can never get the credit line to appear on the blog so I am putting it here.  Thanks, Tom!

Special exhibits and displays in honor of Alhambra Decades Reunion Weekend:

Martinez Museum will be open for a special exhibit “Hail the Blue and Gold” on Decades Weekend: 

Saturday, August 18 from 9 a.m. to noon

                                    Sunday, August 19 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Displays will appear in various downtown storefronts including the Contra Costa County History Center (in the former Hilson’s building)

To find out more about Martinez and Contra Costa County history:

Martinez Museum – 1005 Escobar Street, cnr of Court Street

Open Tues and Thurs 11:30 a.m. to 3p.m. First 4 Sundays 1-4 p.m.

925-228-8160; www.martinezhistory.org

Contra Costa County History Center – 610 Main Street, Martinez

Open Tues through Thurs, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; 3rd Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

925-229-1042; www.cocohistory.com