Heading off to School on a Horse

The Morning Mission newspaper reported on August 22, 1909 that the Jurupa School (now called West Riverside School) had just had a new barn built on the school property. The newspaper said the barn "is quite a convenience for the scholars that are compelled to drive a long distance." I had a hard enough time getting my kids off to school. I can't imagine also having to get them on a horse, to have them take proper care of that horse during the school day and then get back on it and get home!

Glen Avon School

The first school in what is now known as Glen Avon was on Tyrolite Street. School was held in a little building that was more a shed than a school. When that was deemed inadequate, a man by the name of John R. Johnston donated two acres on Pyrite Street for a new school, the same site where Glen Avon School is located today. A one room schoolhouse was built on the site in 1895. It was a wooden building that faced Pyrite Street. By 1909 the student population at the school was a respectable 57 students in grades first through eighth.  The school was not originally called Glen Avon. The entire area at that time was called West Riverside and so the new school was called by that name. Today's West Riverside School was called Jurupa School. Confused yet? In the 1908-09 school year the community around the West Riverside School decided to rename itself Glen Avon and the following school year the school and school district changed its name to Glen Avon as well.        

First School in Mira Loma

In 1888 A.J. Stalder donated land for the first school in what is known today as Mira Loma. Lumber and labor were donated by local families to build the school in 1892. It was known as the Pleasant Valley school. Just a year later the County of Riverside was formed from portions of San Diego and San Bernardino. A school in the Winchester area was also known as Pleasant Valley so our Mira Loma school changed its name to Union, which was the name of the election district for that area. The school was located where Etiwanda intersects the 60 freeway today. This little school served the children of the area until a new school was built in 1915.