Tubac Schoolhouse

Santa Cruz County, AZ

Year Built: 1885

Year Closed:

National Register of Historic Places:

About the School:

The first school to be supported with public funds, the 1885 Tubac schoolhouse is the second oldest school in Arizona.  The groundwork for establishing the school began in  1876 when ten residents petitioned the Pima County Superintendent of Schools for a  school to be built.  The following year, Mr. T. Lillie Mercer became Tubac’s first teacher, earning $30 per year to teach around 30 students, three of them his own children.  Since there wasn’t an actual school building yet, classes were held at one end of the Otero general store while liquor, dry goods, and groceries were procured at the other end.  Spanish was included in the curriculum as most of the students were of Mexican descent.

After hearing about a teaching vacancy in Tubac, Mrs. Sarah M. Black, the next teacher at the Tubac school, arrived in 1884.  In a 1926 interview, Mrs. Black spoke of arriving at the school, “So I got a guide and came over here on horseback; made the trip in a day; left Oro Blanco at six in the morning and got here at ten that night.  I had a full day.  I had to teach Spanish too and I had some fort to fifty pupils.”  Classes continued to be held in the Otero general store while work began on the construction of the new adobe building that would be the school.  It was completed in 1885 and had a packed dirt floor.

In the 1890s there were 117 to 140 pupils in the school with three teachers.  The 1892-1893 school year had and enrollment of 118 students which increased to 139 students the following year.  When a neighboring district was organized in 1897, Tubac experienced a decline in attendance.

Sarah’s husband, John Black, also taught at the school, receiving $75 per month for teaching 80 to 90 students.  Due to a pay increase in 1886, Sarah’s salary was $80 per month.  The only two teachers the Tubac students had known for the 15 years prior to the formation of Santa Cruz County, Sarah stopped teaching in 1888 due to eye trouble. After failing to appear before the board of examiners to answer to the charges of “immoral and unprofessional conduct” and that “he was much addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors,” John Black’s teaching license was revoked in the summer of 1899.

After John Black’s dismissal, Delia Johnson took over teaching and taught for two years until leaving after marrying a man from Nogales.  After the Sopori School District was formed din 1902, enrollment decreased again at Tubac.  Ann Pugh was hired for the 1902-1903 school year and she resigned in February 1903 after which, James Cowan replaced her through 1905.  After James Cowan left, there was a new teach every year until 1913, with most of them only staying for one year.  A possible reason for this could be that the Normal Schools, as teacher’s colleges were called, hardly ever taught Spanish and since the teachers were all European Americans and the students were mainly Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans, communication must have been a major problem.  Pay also probably played a role in teachers not renewing their contracts for a second school term; female teachers received less money than male teachers.  Delia Johnson received $65 per month whereas James Cowan received $80.

By 1907, an additional classroom, a new floor and a new roof were added to the school and there were only 34 students but school population grew fast that the school was crowded even with the addition to the building and by 1913 enrollment was up to 65 students with grades 1-3 in one room and grades 4-8 in the second room.