White Point Elementary

White Point Elementary is one of the newer schools in town and from what I’ve heard, one of the best. There must be something about developing minds and fresh ocean air. I’ve seen a couple of teachers from White Point in the historical archives a few times gathering pictures and info for a new learning center or something. The front of the school looks a little gray and drab, but check out this picture.

South Shores Magnet School for the Visual and Performing Arts

South Shores is a magnet school meaning they need to have an ethnically diverse student body ratio of 60% Minority to 40% White students. I am a magnet alum from different schools and I loved being a magnet kid, although an arts magnet might have been more fun than the Math and Science programs I went to. I’ve heard nothing but good things about South Shores. I’m so glad I can tell you where it is now!

Angels Gate and Mommy & Me

There are two pre-school type programs on the grounds of Angels Gate, this playground belongs to one of them. Its a little unsettling seeing a giant building on blocks right behind a jungle gym.

Angels Gate High School used to be housed on the west side of the complex in the WWI buildings that are now scattered about the campus. They were moved to bungalows in front of the Marine Mammal Care Center to make way for the new high school. It was kind of a blessing in disguise for them because their news facility is brand new.

Point Fermin Elementary

Point Fermin Elementary School is located on Kerckhoff between 32nd and 34th streets. I was trying to figure out when it was built by looking it up on ZIMAS, but all it could tell me was that the land it sits on got a new owner in 1967 so maybe the school was built a short time after that? From what I can tell from message boards online, Pt. Fermin is a small school environment with a brand new marine science magnet. The kids looked like they were having fun when I walked by. Except for the poor kid in the picture below. I kept waiting for him to get out of the shot, but it looks like he may have been on a time out.

Wikipedro/Pedro Pedigree: Leland Street Elementary School

Leland Street Elementary, Leland Street and Leland Park are all named for Leland Peck, youngest child of George H. Peck. I read somewhere that he was a sickly child, confined to a wheelchair most of his life. I can’t find where I read that, but census records show him and his sister Alma both still living with their father in their 40’s.

The front facades of Leland St. Elementary and Cabrillo Ave Elementary look almost identical. This is what Cabrillo’s front entry looked like when I was a student there.

Here is a picture of the new building and the new playground.

Wikipedro: Sixteenth/Fifteenth Street School

This information is taken from the October 1985 edition of The Shoreline, the Historical Society newsletter.

Sixteenth Street School opened in 1901. It was known as 16th Street because the main entrance faced that street. When the city was annexed to Los Angeles in 1909, the name was changed to Fifteenth Street to avoid confusion because Los Angeles already had a Sixteenth Street School. The school contained all grades, from kindergarten through high school, until the high school was built in 1904.

During schooltime the students could hear the fishing boat, The Alpha, blow its horn; the number of times would indicate how many tons of fish it had caught. The boys were allowed to carry knives and they would take off running at the sound of the hornblows and head for the docks to gut the fish, working long hours to make extra money.

On June 28, 1922, at approximately 1:30pm, electrical sparks in the attic ignited the surrounding area and created a fire that destroyed the school. The children were safely evacuated and watched their school go up in flames from across the street. The school board allocated funds for a new school the next day and the remainder of the semester was conducted in tents.

This is what the school looks like today. It is the oldest school in San Pedro, still in use.

Wikipedro: San Pedro High School

San Pedro High School was established in 1903 and first met on the 2nd floor of the 16th Street School. The original high school building, pictured above, was located on Gaffey between 12th and 13th and opened for classes in 1906. The buildings were severely damaged by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and a new school had to be built. The Administration and Language Arts buildings were built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Adminstration, the largest New Deal agency (the Beacon Street Post Office was also a WPA project). The picture below is a 40’s aerial view of the young campus. Both pictures are from Joe McKinzie’s San Pedro post card history series book, available at Williams Bookstore.

The school mascot is the Pirate and the colors are black and gold.

Young America

There was this PE teacher at Dodson when I was there and this guy had been there from the 1960’s. He was tough and you could always hear him pressing his classes to dig harder in their runs by yelling “Come on Young America!” Junior High PE definitely is killer, and seeing those kids out on the yard took me back. I actually got caught in the middle of a stampede of high school and jr high school runners. Of course the junior high kids made the older kids look bad.

Wikipedro: Richard Henry Dana Junior High

Dana Junior High (I love that they didn’t change the letters to middle school like someone-DODSON) is named for Richard Henry Dana Jr, an american lawyer and the author of Two Years Before The Mast, a memoir about his two years at sea that took him to western ports like San Pedro. The school opened for business on February 6, 1928. School colors are blue and gold and the mascot is the Mariner.

I don’t personally know much about Dana, I’ve only been on campus once as a child for a tap recital. I definitely remember the giant auditorium they had. I remember being awed by the size and expecting all junior high’s to have the same. Unfortunately Dodson’s Carter Hall left a little to be desired.

I did have the pleasure of being in front of the award winning Dana Middle School Band and Drill Team in the Christmas Parade. Those kids were amazing!

Willenberg vs Harlan Shoemaker

Does anyone know what the story is with these two names? I feel like there are two ‘schools’ (no pun intended) in town of what people call this place. Older folks call it Harlan Shoemaker and everyone else calls it Willenberg. Did it used to be called Harlan Shoemaker, then got changed to Willenberg but they kept the sign up? I couldn’t find any info on the internet except that any reference to Harlan Shoemaker in San Pedro, was all from the 50’s and 60’s.