McNear: East Mendocino’s early grammar school opening marked by tragedy

IN THE EARLY DAYS of Mendocino, the area east of what is now Highway 1 was known as “East Mendocino,” a community with its own characteristics and infrastructure. The town began two miles east of where the highway runs today and spread from the north fork of Big River in the south to Russian Gulch in the north. The community’s size peaked between 1910 and 1935. Longtime East Mendocino resident Bertha Reep Mason recalled that East Mendocino had “quite definite boundaries and was not considered a part of Mendocino City.”

In 1911, families petitioned the County Board of Supervisors for a schoolhouse. In order to attend school, the children of East Mendocino had to walk to the existing grammar school in Mendocino, with some children walking up to four miles one way. In harsh rain and cold weather, this was a difficult trek.