VIGNETTE > Tamalpais Park School
Original School, 1932 > click to enlarge
The original four-classroom schoolhouse opened in April 1909 for grades 1-4. In 1934, local builder Melvin Klyce built more classrooms so that the school could house kindergarten through grade 5. In 1927, Edna Maguire was transferred from Homestead School to become teacher-principal. In 1938, funds from a bond issue added to funding by the depression-era Public Works Administration (PWA) were used to buy additional land and construct a new V-shaped edifice with an auditorium at its apex and wings extending back from both sides. In 1939 Tamalpais Park School opened with six full classrooms, two empty classrooms, a health and dental observation room, a music room, the principal’s office and the office of the superintendent. It educated 6th, 7th and 8th grades, the lower grades having been moved to Old Mill School. During the 1950s when the first post-war Baby Boomers started school, Park School [“Tamalpais” was dropped in the 1940s] housed K-6. Grades 7 and 8 were moved to the new Edna Maguire junior high school in Alto. In 1961, Mill Valley’s first traffic light was installed on East Blithedale in front of the Park School auditorium. In 1967, the original school building was razed because it did not meet state earthquake and fire standards.
New building, 1939 > click to enlarge