An authentic 1902 one-room schoolhouse is tucked away on the Del Norte County Fairgrounds in Crescent City, Calif.
At the turn of the century, the North Bank Road鈥檚 Redwood #1 School was where children learned their lessons along the bank of the Smith River midway between Hiouchi and Dr. Fine bridges.
In 1994, the property stood in the way of a housing development and the Del Norte Golf Course.
At the time, fair board members were looking for ways to preserve and promote local history, so they made a deal for the owner to donate it and they would pay the expense of relocating the dilapidated structure.
The old redwood schoolhouse had four-inch, tongue-and-groove fir flooring with no indoor plumbing, no lights, and no heating other than an old woodstove. The movers lifted the building onto a flatbed trailer and the California Highway Patrol escorted the move down the highway to the fairgrounds, where it got a new foundation, repaired siding and a new roof.
Today, with its interior nicely restored, Redwood School #1 is open to public viewing each year during Fair, held the first weekend of August.
Sources: Riley, Joan. "It's School Time Once Again." Del Norte Triplicate, 26 Feb. 1994, p. 1. de Bruin, Cornelia. "Old Redwood Schoolhouse." Del Norte Triplicate, 13 Feb. 2016, www.triplicate.com/news/4347937-151/old-redwood-schoolhouse.
