West Portal Elementary School

Opened: 1926
The large building in the right of the undated photo above has been replaced by bungalows. What happened to it? Fred Laurice tries to shed some light:

"You have asked several questions about the picture of the school. Your two West Portal School 'experts' (me and John Allen) have conferred to fill you in on the details!

"The school was built at a time when the area had many young families, thus the need for two wings. John writes, 'The wing on the right (now gone) was used for K-3 classes, I recall it being called the 'primary wing'. Behind the kindergarten class rooms [in the two bay windows in the right building] were at least two more class rooms on each side with the same arrangement on second floor. The first grades were on the lower floor and second and third grades on the upper floor. My third grade class, where the photo was taken, was on the west side of the building. The building on the left housed the upper grades, the office, the nurse's room and the cafeteria. On the lowest level below the class rooms was the furnace (boiler) room and rest rooms. Joining the two wings along the back, not visible in the picture, was the auditorium and a multi-purpose room.

"'The windows in the foreground below the kindergarten classes were rest rooms with part of the upper schoolyard above them. There was one more level of school yard below what is shown in the photo, making four in all. The school probably had a smaller enrollment when the building on the right was removed. When we were there, I believe, there were three classes for each grade, two September to June and one January to January.'"

Class Photos - Choose a year

1933
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
1942
1949
1950
1951
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1953
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1956
1957
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Images: 1) Courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library; 2) Full assembly to commemorate the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. Courtesy of Jim Hicks!

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Page launched 10 May 2002; Updated 9 December 2005.