Historical Marker · No. 538
Mason Street School
San Diego, San Diego County · California
Erected by San Diego County Board of Supervisors and the Historical Markers Committee, erected 1955, 1955
The bronze measures the county and says nothing about what happened in the room. Mary Chase Walker came out from Massachusetts in 1865 for sixty-five dollars a month and thirty-five children aged four to seventeen. She took a Black woman to lunch at the Franklin House. Diners walked out, parents pulled their children, and enrollment fell from thirty-six to fifteen. She resigned in June 1866. For years the story told here was that she left because she married the school board president.
What the plaque says
Mason Street School First public schoolhouse in this county. Erected at this site in 1865 and known as “Mason Street School -- District No. 1” when San Diego County covered an area larger than three New England states. Restored by popular subscription in 1955. State Registered Landmark No. 538 Marker placed by San Diego County Board of Supervisors and the Historical Markers Committee Erected 1955
Where it stands
32.75370, -117.19752 · Directions
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