National Register of Historic Places #79003461

Built in 1875, to replace the rough lumber Branch District school, built in 1855, The La Grange school was a byproduct of the prosperity that accrued in the region during the 1870s from a massive hydraulic mining operation in the area. Another wave of prosperity that hit the area in the 1890s possibly coincided with the addition of the bell tower and front porch.

Around 1866, C.C. Wright, a native of Iowa began teaching at the school. He went on to become a notable, self-taught lawyer, serving as the District Attorney of Stanislaus County from 1876 to 1879, before being elected to the State Assembly in 1886. On January 11, 1887, Wright introduced a bill that would create irrigation districts and the Wright California Irrigation Act was signed into law by then-governor Washington Bartlet on March 7, 1887, forever changing how the water demands of the county would be distributed.

According to local legend, Bret Harte, an American short story write and poet, best remembered for his short fictional works depicting gamblers, miners, and other romanticized figures of the California Gold Rush taught here while on his journey to the Sierra Gold Fields.