Best Cultural Landmark Moreno Valley Near Me

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The San Timoteo Schoolhouse is one of the District’s three nationally- registered historic sites. Situated in picturesque San Timoteo Canyon, between Redlands and Beaumont, the schoolhouse has witnessed much in its 125+ year history, and now sits ready to welcome a new generation of visitors. read more...

Field trips to San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse are an adventure in learning as students step back more than 100 years when school tablets were made of slate and students walked or road a horse to school! Click on the pdf file of our brochure above for more info.

The San Timoteo Schoolhouse is one of the District’s three nationally- registered historic sites. Situated in picturesque San Timoteo Canyon, between Redlands and Beaumont, the schoolhouse has witnessed much in its 125+ year history, and now sits ready to welcome a new generation of visitors.

San Timoteo Canyon has been a route of travel for thousands of years. Local Indians used the canyon to travel between the San Bernardino Valley and the desert regions to the east for trade. This pattern continued with the influx of Europeans and Americans in the 1800s. Just after San Bernardino was founded by the Mormons in 1851, non-Mormons began to settle in San Timoteo Canyon by setting up ranches. Over the next 50 years, several different families took up residence in the canyon, and a series of homesteads and ranches could be seen throughout the area.

Obviously one of the amenities that was needed was a school, and from the 1850s to the 1880s, schooling in the area was conducted in barns, adobes, and even just out in the open. By the early 1880s, though, the residents of the area wanted something better for their children. At this point, two men, Eugene Vandeventer and John Frink, began to take action. John Frink, and his brother Horace, were major landowners in the canyon and had been freighters through the area. On February 21, 1882, John Frink gave an area described as “one acre and two square rods” to the San Timoteo School District for “use as a building lot and school ground for the public school in said district.” Frink stipulated that if a school was not constructed within one year, ownership of the parcel would revert back to him.

Another ranch owner to the east of the Frinks was Eugene Vandeventer. With a piece of land for a school site secured, Vandeventer began construction on the schoolhouse. Using all Douglas Fir (which indicates that the wood probably came from the San Bernardino Mountains), Vandeventer built a moderate-sized building consisting of a main room for instruction and two ante-rooms in the front. The building was complete by early 1883, for the San Timoteo School District issued a warrant for the repair of the building in March of that year.

Oral histories with some past students have helped to bring out a myriad of stories about the building. The ante-rooms were used as cloak rooms – the eastern room for the girls and the western for the boys. At class time, the teacher would ring a hand bell, and the students would line up outside their respective rooms. They would leave their coats and lunches in the small rooms, and then enter the main school room. Grades K-8 were taught there by one teacher, whose desk was generally on the west side. The school desks were not fixed to the floor but were on runners so that they could be moved. Usually on Saturday nights, the desks were moved to the side of the room and dances were held with entertainment provided by some of the older members of the community. On Sundays, church services were held, making the schoolhouse serve as a school, community center, and church.