Site of First Public School in Castro Valley

The bronze's first was the valley's second schoolhouse, if a local story holds. In 1854 Zachariah Hughes, a Methodist preacher, opened the Eden Vale school on state money and neighbours' subscriptions and held services in it; legend has Hayward residents coming one night in 1864, setting it on skids and dragging it to B and First Streets. Two years later Brickell gave this ground. His schoolhouse fared no better against fire: it burned in 1901, was rebuilt, and burned again in 1920, and a temporary schoolhouse elsewhere took its pupils until 1929.

What the plaque says

Site of First Public School in Castro Valley This site was part of the original Don Castro land grant. In 1866 pioneer settler Josiah Grover Brickell made a land grant of this site for "educational purposes only" and paid the teacher's salary, who taught children by day, in the one room school house, and farm hands at night by candlelight. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 776 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the Vallecito Parlor No. 308, Native Daughters of the Golden West, November 25, 1962.

Where it stands

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