History of Van Nuys Elementary School

Teacher Resources

Our school was originally built in 1912. Here is how it looked back then!

Nuestra escuela fue originalmente construida en 1912. ¡Así es como se veía!

One of Van Nuys Elementary's early principals was Oletha Stearns. She was principal for 29 years – from 1924 through 1953. In 1964, when the school was 54 years old, she wrote a history of the school. It's fascinating! Read it below.

A History of Van Nuys Elementary School from 1911 to 1953

By Oletha Sterns

Principal 1924-1953

Van Nuys elementary school in 1965 is fifty-four years old, one of the oldest schools in the valley. It has a colorful and interesting history. A record of its growth would seem a valuable document for the Parent Teacher Association to have in its archives. As those associated with the school in its early days are not getting any younger, it has occurred to me that I, who was principal of the school for twenty-nine years, from 1924 to 1953, could write a simple narrative of the growth and adventure of the school.

I have talked with Mrs. Lucile Johnson, a teacher from 1911 to 1940, with Mrs. Prudence Harding, one of the early teachers, and with Mrs. Walter Mollett, P.T.A. president in 1924-25, and have gleaned some information about the first thirteen years of the school's existence.

The school first opened as a country school, in 1911, the year Van Nuys town was founded. The first year there were fifty children, meeting in two store rooms on Van Nuys Blvd. near Sylvan. There were two teachers. In 1912 the school doubled in number and moved to four store rooms at Van Nuys Blvd. at Victory. Mrs. Lucile Johnson was one of the four teachers. There was no P.T.A. at that time and no principal. Mrs. Johnson's father, Mr. Gibson, was one of the county trustees of the district in 1911 and spent a great deal of time traveling around the country to find the type of architecture to use in the first school building in Van Nuys. The plans adopted were those of a very impressive building. It was three stories high, the first floor being half basement. The building was built of white glazed brick and white stucco. The roof was flat and supported an imposing white dome which at that time, being the tallest object in the valley, could be seen from every direction and was a landmark marking the center or hub of the valley. Wide steps, some twenty of them, led to a spacious porch at the entrance of the main floor. Great white columns around the porch added to the impressiveness of the building. A wide lawn extending the full width of the block, and landscaped by a Scottish gardener, gave the building a beautiful setting. The cornerstone of this building now in the present building, was laid in 1912. The building was occupied in 1913 and demolished after the earthquake in 1933.

A huge auditorium, with a balcony, had a total seating capacity of one thousand. Those early pioneers thought big. The first year the building was opened two rooms on the top floor were occupied by the High School. In the basement, cooking, sewing, and manual training were taught. About 1914 Los Angeles annexed Van Nuys and the school became a Los Angeles City School.

After a few years the ten rooms in the original building were too few to hold the children bussed in from five miles in every direction and the lower floor of the annex was built. After a few more years a second floor was added to the annex. (This was removed after the earthquake in 1933.) Then five bungalows were added to make enough space to house the thousand children who attended it by 1923.

And so it grew and the parents began to gather to form a P.T.A. As far as I can learn the first P.T.A. was formed about 1916. Mrs. Leslie was one of the first presidents, and Mrs. Trotter kept the faltering association going for five years. It is due to these early leaders' unfailing work and enthusiasm that the Van Nuys Elementary P.T.A. finally became a live association.

The first principal in 1913 was Miss Eby, followed by Mrs. Fraser, Mr. Snow, and Mr. Clark.

When I, Oletha Stearns, came to Van Nuys as principal in 1924 the school was still housed in the beautiful, airy, white building with its gleaming dome. Somewhat awed by the building and by the block long line of children and parents waiting to register, I was greatly heartened when, on that first day, a delegation from the Chamber of Commerce came in to welcome me and to bring me a huge basket of flowers.

There were over one thousand children in the school then bussed in from all directions. The faculty numbered twenty-five. Our boundaries extended from Coldwater Canyon to Sepulveda and from the hills to the present Panorama City. One of the duties of teachers was to load children on the busses and teach them how to behave while riding. One of our early bus drivers was Dana Andrews.

Until about 1926 there were one hundred Mexican American children included in our enrollment. Then Lemona Ave, school was opened in the Mexican district. Later this school included all children west of Kester. Sherman Oaks and McKinley Home school were the first schools to be organized from our original district. A few years later Hazeltine and Havenhurst relieved us. Then as our enrollment climbed to 1400 with a faculty of thirty-six, all the lower grades being on half-day sessions, Erwin, Chandler, and Kester were built. Still later Kittridge was organized to take part of the district. We dropped to an enrollment of eight hundred at one time but as the valley grew, were back to one thousand at the time of my retirement in 1953.

Mrs. Walter Mollett was P.T.A. president in 1924 when I became principal. My first meeting with her was the week before school opened when I looked up from the dirty job of cleaning out a closet and saw her pleasant face. She had come from a P.T.A. board meeting to tell me that the board had chosen a new cafeteria manager. In those early days the cafeteria was managed by the P.T.A. The members of the board and the manager drove to the roadside stands to get the best and cheapest fruits and vegetables. The manager had charge of all buying and menu planning. The profit or loss went to the P.T.A. The cafeteria was in the same bungalow as at the present, but it was then located on Hamlin, north of the old building. The Board of Education took over the management of the cafeteria about 1936.

The P.T.A. participated in several tree planting ceremonies in those early days, to make the dusty playground, then unpaved, more tolerable. The cork oaks along Sylmar and the twisty trees, as the children called them, in each corner of the front lawn were planted by the original Scottish gardener in 1912. Both species were quite rare in California at that time, especially the twisted Leptospermum or Australian tea tree.

A live Christmas tree was planted by the P.T.A. about 1926 for the Christmas processional which took place each year. When planted, it was along the front walk leading to the old building. It was saved when the old building was torn down and now stands south of the main entrance.

The large eucalyptus tree, on the playground at the corner of the handball court, planted about 1927, grew to its great height because it tapped the row of eight cesspools which served the school. What a day it was when they had to dig a new cesspool in the series and what a joy it was, to the teachers at least, when the sewer came.

Until about 1930 the lower quarter of the grounds was given over to a garden bungalow under the supervision of an agriculture teacher. The huge walnut tree on the lower grounds got its good start when the agriculture classes took care of it. During this same time, sewing and wood working classes were taught in the basement of the school.

The dome of the old building was not only a landmark in the valley, it was a head-ache to the Board of Education because it constantly leaked and the paint peeled off. Nevertheless a journey to the dome was always a highly anticipated joy to each A6 class. For on the last day of school the A6 class was taken by their adventurous principal up a narrow, always locked stairway to the spooky attic under the dome. There in single file and with strict admonitions to be careful they didn't fall through the ceiling below, they followed the catwalk around the attic till they reached the little stairway leading to the huge flat roof. Then two by two they were allowed to climb to the wide lip of the dome itself where the whole wonderful valley swept around them. It was a sad day to see that old dome fall down.

The P.T.A. joined with the faculty in giving parties to the graduating classes and in staging many festivals to raise money for their numerous charities. During the depression years much of the money they earned went to feed many of our own children.

The first festival of my administration was given in the spring of 1925 on the huge porch of the old building which made a perfect stage. The play was The Pied Piper of Hamlin and every one of the thousand children had at least a walking part. The many spectators filled the lawn in front of the porch. The proceeds of that and later money making events were kept overnight in the huge walk-in safe in the office of the school. Many of the succeeding festivals were given out-doors as well as in the auditorium. In the old building the stage was large and the seating capacity was one thousand. At festivals it was always filled to capacity by interested parents. Some spectacular productions were given and the P.T.A. members and parents were generous and helpful in making lovely costumes. One very beautiful festival was given in the new auditorium about 1947. It was repeated for four nights to accommodate all who wished to come. The $800 made that week went to buy a baby grand piano, later replaced by the Board of Education.

Among many good times for children sponsored by the P.T.A. was the yearly Halloween parade at the noon hour with the children in costume and many parents enjoying the fun.

When the earthquake came in 1933 the stately old building, only twenty years old was found unsafe and the thousand children and twenty-six teachers were moved out to half-day sessions in ten tents and three bungalows. The cafeteria bungalow was moved to its present position and the lunch room used as office, teachers' room, and store room. Two first grades were housed in the kitchen, P.T.A. meetings were held in the church across the street. The P.T.A. was a towering pillar of strength during these trying eighteen months. The canvas tents with their wooden floors were heated by round, pot bellied real stoves and the custodians were kept busy carrying coal to keep us warm. That winter was very cold and rainy and the fall was extremely hot. Many days the temperature would go above 100 degrees in the tents. We planted morning glories around them to climb up the walls and shut off some of the sun's glare and we kept the hoses going around them, but nothing helped much.

How wonderful it was to see the new building taking shape, tiled roof for better cooling and iron rods through every wall as safeguards against earthquakes. The top floor of the annex, added in 1922, was removed and the main building and the south wing built. In the winter of 1934 the corner stone, removed from the old building, was laid. Many dignitaries and people from the community were present. New data was added to the original manuscripts and sealed in the box. In the fall of 1935 we moved in. How luxurious to have twenty-two rooms and four bungalows – enough room for everyone on full day sessions. No one who hasn't taught in tents in the San Fernando Valley will ever know how joyous that faculty was.

The P.T.A. was tireless and enthusiastic in helping to make classrooms and offices in the new building attractive and pleasant. I think parents enjoyed the new quarters as much as the children and teachers did.

Still there was no auditorium and the P.T.A. continued to meet in the church. About 1937 the new auditorium was built. To be sure the seats from the old auditorium which had been stored looked pretty forlorn in the beautiful new auditorium as did the battered old upright piano. But the hardwood floors were gleaming and the monks-cloth drapes and stage curtain seemed quite adequate. The compact little kitchen, the large space in front for class activities and the roomy stage were our pride and joy. Then came the rains. Tyrone, then a drainage street for all the territory to the north, became a raging torrent. It rose and spread till water poured under the side door of the auditorium a foot deep. When it receded our beautiful floors were ruined. After repair they looked almost as good as new, though the boards were a little wavy in spots. But the following year Tyrone rose again and ran through the auditorium. The same year, to add insult to injury, the hot water tank in the storage room at the back broke one weekend and we came in to a flooded auditorium on Monday morning. At that time the battered wood floor was removed and cement squares installed, later replaced by the present floor.

The school's experience with rain and undrained country were many. Often children or cars could not cross Tyrone as it ran strong and swift, three feet deep. The custodian would place heavy benches across the water and the teachers, parents, and I would hand children from one to the other while we precariously teetered on the benches. Our picture got in the Los Angeles papers one time. Sometimes the police department would send the paddy wagon to ferry children across. In the worst rain the water on Sylmar came up to the front steps. That day only part of the faculty and six children got to school and they were quickly sent home. Finally temporary bridges were put in every two or three blocks and removed in the summer. At last drainage channels were built to let Tyrone be a street again.

During the 1940's the P.T.A. and the school were busy selling war stamps and bonds and issuing ration books. Bombing and earthquake drills were a weekly occurrence. At the signal, children would march to the halls, sit on the floor with their backs to the walls singing as they waited. The music teacher would start at one end and go through the halls of the three wings to keep the singing going. It brought a catch in your throat to see and hear them.

About 1944 the upper half of the grounds was blacktopped and a few years later the lower grounds. While some thought the blacktop was harder for a child to fall on than earth, it brought blessed relief from dust and dirt.

The fence at the back and sides was put up about 1948.

There were many customs and traditions built up during the years. Among them was the system of sixth grade monitors, who took care of the physical education equipment and helped supervise smaller children on the crowded play ground, for which they received a treasured letter. The Monday morning outdoor assembly and flag salute became another custom. The processional at Christmas with gifts brought for a needy school, the Halloween fun day and the Spring Festival were greatly cherished.

And always there was the Parent Teacher Association ready and eager to help on all occasions. Their understanding, sympathy and cooperation were a constant source of strength to the school. All the P.T.A. presidents through these years should have their names on the honor roll.

In 1953 after twenty-nine years as principal, I retired from Van Nuys Elementary. The P.T.A., the faculty, the Chamber of Commerce, the community, who turned out two thousand strong to a reception on the playground my last week of school, and the children, gave me many wonderful memories to carry away with me.

The principals who succeeded me, Mrs. Dodson, Mrs. Beal and Mrs. Hughes will have to go on with the story of Van Nuys Elementary's fifty-four eventful years.