"MESA MEMORIES" MONDAY - Remembering the Mesa Schoolhouse
Another school year has begun and hundreds of young Mesa kids have gone back to McKinley, Washington, or Monroe schools. But there used to be another school on the Mesa – a one-room schoolhouse located near the corner of Mesa Lane and Mesa School Lane.
The teacher for many years was Miss Carrie E. Brant. Brant's career was typical of many school teachers — she never married, but probably taught hundreds of students that she considered "her children." She was the daughter of a judge in the Santa Ynez area. She had been born in 1876 in a small town in Illinois, and at age 10, moved with her family to Santa Barbara County. Brant began teaching when she was just 18, and later obtained a teaching degree from the Santa Barbara Normal School, located where the Riviera Theater is today. (The SB Normal School later became UCSB.)
Brant bought a home on Mesa School Lane in 1908, and it may have been that year that the one-room La Mesa schoolhouse opened its doors for the first time. When the new McKinley School opened on Loma Alta Drive in 1932, the La Mesa School was closed forever.
But the story doesn't end there. In January 1932, the Board of Education sold the one-room schoolhouse to William F. Hazard for $101. Hazard, a contractor, moved the schoolhouse to 349 Mohawk Road and converted it into his home. (Please do not disturb the home's current residents.)
Shown is a photo of the Mesa's schoolhouse in 1919. Image: courtesy of Gerry Turner