Site of the Kellogg School
Berkeley, Alameda County, California
Marker Inscription
BERKELEY HISTORY. SITE OF THE KELLOGG SCHOOL. 1884. An apple orchard, two houses, and a tailor shop once occupied this block. In 1879, six local businessmen and a university professor financed the purchase of part of the block near Oxford Street as the site for one of the city’s first public schools. The building was named for the Board of Education president Martin Kellogg, the University of California’s seventh president. The wood frame Victorian-style Kellogg School had three classrooms and separate entrances for girls and boys. Students ate their lunches along the banks of nearby Strawberry Creek behind the schoolyard. At the time, high school attendance in California was not compulsory, and many working-class parents objected to paying taxes for a school their children might not attend and which was far from West Berkeley. With four graduates in 1884, the school became the first high school in the state to be accredited by the University of California. In 1918 the building served as a place of worship for Berkeley’s First Hebrew Congregation. Later, commercial buildings were constructed on the site. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2000
Erected by Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
The Story
On a block once holding an apple orchard, two houses, and a tailor shop, local businessmen and a university professor financed one of Berkeley's first public schools in 1879. The wood-frame Victorian Kellogg School — named for Board of Education president Martin Kellogg, later the University of California's seventh president — opened with three classrooms and separate entrances for girls and boys. In 1884, with just four graduates, it became the first high school in California accredited by the University of California.
Why it matters
At a time when high school was neither free nor compulsory and working-class families resented the taxes, this school's accreditation marked an early step toward the public secondary education Americans now take for granted.
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Related people
- · Martin Kellogg
Themes & tags
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