Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Forbes Mill curator Mary Foster looks through a collection of Los Gatos High School yearbooks on display now at the museum.

Forbes Mill offers 137 years of schools

By Shari Kaplan

Encompassing nearly 1-1/2 centuries of local school memorabilia, the Los Gatos Museum Association's new exhibit at the Forbes Mill Regional History Museum portrays more than just reading, writing and 'rithmetic.

From elementary school primers and wooden paddles to high school football jerseys and dog-eared yearbooks--with photographs, newspaper clippings, vintage clothing and furniture thrown in for good measure--"137 Years of Schools in the Los Gatos Area" has been an ever-expanding exhibit ever since curator Mary Foster began the endeavor about five months ago.

"You've heard of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony? This is Foster's Unfinished Exhibit," she says with a laugh. "It accelerated until I was working night and day."

She began preparations by calling up dozens of former and current students, teachers and other school-related personnel to see if they had items to share in the exhibit--a sort of gigantic show-and-tell session in which school items themselves are the topic.

"This exhibit truly has something for everyone. Many of the schools we're featuring have long and interesting histories," Foster says. "The response has been just glowing."

The longest walk down that lane leads to Lexington School, which went up in 1859 on 1.25 acres along Los Gatos Creek between Lexington and Oakmont. For a time, it shared its hall with a temperance society and was the only school between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Following several incarnations, Lexington relocated to its present site in 1953, safe from the rising waters created by Lexington Dam.

Fading black-and-white class pictures taken at the original Lexington show fresh-faced children of mountain families, often clad in overalls or simple dresses, sitting at attention for the camera.

Pictures like these are among the staples of the exhibit and are indeed worth a thousand words. Joining class photos from myriad schools are snapshots of indoor and outdoor activities, as well as images of the buildings themselves.

At last count, Foster says, more than 34 schools are represented. These include public, private and parochial schools. Beneath a mural by Los Gatan Karon Fleming displaying every school that existed in Los Gatos and vicinity are biographies and photos of schools such as Montezuma School for Boys, Casa Maria Montessori School, Los Gatos Parent Nursery School, Green Hills Preschool and a quintet of old mountain schools--Burrell, Hester Creek, Highland, Laurel and Summit--which eventually all fed into the Loma Prieta District.

A nearby glass display case houses old textbooks, including a McGuffey's Primer from 1881 and Davies Intellectual Arithmetic from 1903. Another one is filled with a 90-year span of yearbooks from Los Gatos High School and Mark Twain Continuation High.

Included in a display of antiquated clothing and school accessories is a prim and wispy schoolgirl's dress and a little schoolboy's outfit in the "Little Lord Fauntleroy" style. Joining them are a wicker lunch basket and wicker lunch pail--both nearly 100 years old--as well as a wooden paddle used to smack students on the seat of their pants.

A humorous note next to the paddle reads: "Swats were doled out in the presence of another adult and outside of the classroom. Usually two swats were given. ... [B]oth student and teacher then returned to the classroom tasks with only a small loss of educational time."

"137 Years of Schools in the Los Gatos Area" runs through Dec. 1 at Forbes Mill Regional History Museum, 75 Church St. Hours are noon to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. Donations are appreciated. For more information, call 395-7375.