History of Torrance Elementary, the Greatest Little School in the West

I read this article in the Daily Breeze a few weeks back.

Torrance Elementary is the city’s oldest school still in operation

I wanted to repost and comment on it, and I wanted to share some of my personal reminiscenses.

I went to Torrance Elementary, starting in Second Grade.

For me, it very much was the Greatest Little School in the West. I had attended Myler Street School in Carson, CA (part of LA Unified) before that, from pre-K to First Grade, so I had a point of comparison I could draw from.

Torrance Elementary was better, way better.

Torrance Elementary School went by simply “Torrance School” when it opened in a small, two-room building at 1824 Cabrillo Ave., near downtown, in September 1913. It was the first school built after the city of Torrance’s founding in 1912.

I was in one of Torrance Unified's first schools. I often remembered hearing good news like that. I also know that our schools was intimately connected with Torrance High School, in large part because of the high school stadium was right across the street.

Schools operated in the area before then. Rancher Orin Weston, for example, started his small Weston Ranch School in 1890 on Lomita Boulevard (then known as Weston Street) just west of Crenshaw. As far as can be determined, it never had much more than 25 students and closed in 1915.

Wow!

Perry Elementary, 17831 Prairie Ave., opened in 1905, operating as an independent school. It became part of the Torrance Unified School District when that entity was founded in 1947. TUSD closed Perry in 1981.

That would be another interesting story to write about. How many elementary schools in Torrance were closed? I know that Greenwood Elementary turned into a set of public rooms for the city to host teachings and trainings.

After its founding, the newly formed city needed to establish its own school, and quickly. Torrance School’s first class, in the wood frame structure on Cabrillo, consisted of 66 students, ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Torrance wouldn’t incorporate until 1921, so the school came under the supervision of the Los Angeles City School District, which became Los Angeles Unified School District in 1961.

Blecch! LAUSD sucks!

Torrance’s next need: a high school. When Torrance High School opened four years later, in 1917, its splendid building also housed the elementary school, which needed new quarters after quickly outgrowing its tiny first home. The K-8 school became known as Torrance Elementary, to differentiate it from the high school.

Yes, I had known about this even when I was a student.

Torrance High grew quickly, though, and plans had to be made to give Torrance Elementary (known colloquially as “Torrance El”) its own home.

Fortunately, there was room on the property for a new building, on 3.6 acres just south of the high school, at 2001 Martina Ave. The not-quite-finished school had grown to 335 students when it opened in 1923.

By 1931, it had 953 students, and some had to be moved to the school’s Fern Avenue Annex. A year later, Fern Avenue Elementary was established.

Cool!

The 1933 Long Beach earthquake caused some structural damage at Torrance El, enough to require the L.A. school district to spend $63,000 for reconstruction, rehabilitation and strengthening of the structure in 1935.

I am so glad that Torrance students do not have to suffer in LAUSD schools.

The school remained at the Martina Avenue site for four decades. But, with the rising postwar baby boom population in the 1950s, space at the high schools started to become scarce, and Torrance High looked to expand using the Torrance El building.

TUSD BEGAN CASTING ABOUT FOR A NEW SITE FOR THE SCHOOL, AND A 26-ACRE CHUNK OF LAND BECAME AVAILABLE COURTESY OF THE U.S. NAVY. THE MILITARY HAD DECLARED THE NAVAL ANNEX PROPERTY AS SURPLUS, AND TUSD SUPERINTENDENT J.H. HULL WORKED WITH THE GOVERNMENT TO GET THE LAND.

He succeeded in a major way. The government decided to give the Naval Annex surplus property, valued at $500,000, to TUSD without charge on Feb. 1, 1961, stipulating that it be used for schools. It was the culmination of a long campaign by Hull and the community advocating for the new school site.

There was a time when elected officials and bureaucrats did the right thing for residents. How those times have flown away.

The northern chunk of the parcel was given over for the brand new home of Torrance Elementary School. The firm of Donley-Bundy and Associates designed the 30,000 square-foot complex. The Anaheim contracting firm Diely Corp. built the $670,000 school.

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The southern portion of the free land became Torrance High School’s Zamperini Field football stadium, which was completed in 1962 at a cost of $300,000.

Cool.

Over the years, the city would carve Shery High, Wilson Park and the Southern California Regional Occupational Center from other parcels of the Naval Annex land.

The old Torrance Elementary School building became part of the Torrance High campus. The building became known as the Torrance High Annex, or Annex Building, and is connected to the rest of campus by a curved, covered walkway.

And now there's an aquatic center. How many of us in the public can use it?

The brand new Torrance Elementary School, 2125 Lincoln Ave., opened to students in early 1963. Its official dedication was held that March, with a proud Hull in attendance. Hull Middle School in Torrance was named for the former superintendent when it opened in 1970, the year he died.

Torrance Elementary celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2013. It has been remodeled several times, notably in 1991 and 1997.

By the way, the two-room building on Cabrillo Avenue that housed the original school still stands, and, in revamped form, now serves as a private residence.

Final Reflection

Education has become completely rotten from the top down. One can only hope that as more parents find the time and get acquainted with better resources and Internet access. More parents refuse to let their children suffer under the toxic indoctrination of LGBT content, along with the environmentalist movement and social "justice and equity."

There is less and less education happening in government, not "public" schools, and we need more parents to demand accountability and good will from our elected officials and civil servants. As a former teacher myself, I would urge parents to seek out homeschooling options.

Still, in spite of the cultural malaise which has swept over government schools, I had a good time as a student at Torrance Elementary!