Altaville Grammar School

Calaveras County, California

Year Built: 1858

Year Closed: 1950

National Register of Historic Places #79000471 (added on August 24, 1979)

California State Historical Landmark #499 

The Altaville Grammar School, one of the oldest in California, was built in 1858 on land donated by M. D. Harmon using bricks manufactured in local kilns. Funds for the new school building were raised by a dance held in the billiard room of the Prince and Garibaldi building. Furnishings for the schools interior were held through numerous town socials. An article in the San Andreas Independent on January 8,1859 says “The new schoolhouse is nearly completed. It stands upon a beautiful natural eminence and presents quite a pleasing ornament as well as a useful appendage to the town.”

The walls of the 36’ long school were built two bricks thick. Oil lamps provided light when necessary until electricity was installed sometime in the early 1900s. As the student population grew, a small wooden building was added to the back of the school for the upper grades. The school day would start at 9 a.m. with the ringing of the bell and putting up the flag. Classes would go until around 4 p.m. when the flag was lowered, folded and put away until the next day. It was a special honor to be chosen to put the flag up every morning and most students knew how to properly fold the flag by the time they reached the second grade.

When the bell rang for the last time in 1950, the building was left abandoned. It was on the verge of collapse until a fundraising campaign lead by the Calaveras County Historical Society was started in 1981 to save the school. With the help of the County of Calaveras, Angels Camp, and local citizens, $28,000 was raised to move and restore the schoolhouse. The 90-ton building was moved closer to Hwy. 49 in December of 1983 and the final restoration was completed in 1989.

Today, visitors to the school can take a step back in time and visit the schoolhouse as part of the Angels Camp Museum.