Newton Booth School

In the 1890’s, working class families, running small farms and working in blue collar industrial jobs at local factories, advocated for a school in the area east of 21st and south of R Street, as their children could not afford the electric streetcar fare to Fremont and Jefferson schools, and walking was nearly impossible for the children during the floods that bogged down the area in a thick muck during the winter months. The city responded in 1896 by constructing a 2-room wood frame schoolhouse. In 1897, a year after its founding, the school was christened in honor of California’s 11th governor, Newton Booth. Before long the area surrounding the school began to explode with growth and development, which led to the reconstruction of the school in 1921, using concrete and brick. It was the largest of the 11 schools constructed with bond money at the time, and included 13 classrooms, 4 “special rooms,” a principal’s office, and a teachers’ area. A few years later, the Newton Booth assembly hall was added to the east side of campus. The Newton Booth School was also one of the first Spanish Eclectic buildings constructed in the neighborhood, and the most architecturally significant local example of the style. The developing neighborhood came to be called Newton Booth due to the impressive schoolhouse erected at the southeast boundary.

Featured images (in order of appearace): 1) The newly rebuilt Newton Booth School as it appeared in 1921. The former 2-room wooden schoolhouse was replaced with this larger brick structure with local bond money, 2) The Newton Booth Assembly was added as a multi-purpose hall just a few years after completion of the new main school building, 3) A circa 1950s class photo at the Newton Booth School.