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Once home to students throughout the San Ramon Valley, the Tassajara One Room Schoolhouse on Finley Road is now owned by an organization dedicated to preserving local history.

The county and San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District and Contra Costa County recently transferred ownership of the schoolhouse to Museum of the San Ramon Valley, which has operated the popular program for SRVUSD third graders for 18 years. Over 30,000 students have experienced an 1888 school day in the interactive living museum setting, which graduated many members of pioneer families such as Roger Povda, Gordon Rasmussen and Betty Casey.

"The main difference is instead of the school being a sort of odd fit into the Fire District mission, it's a natural fit into the Museum because it's a historic structure," said Jerry Warren, president of the museum's board of directors. "We will continue to maintain its structure and historical integrity."

Part of the school district's local history curriculum, the Tassajara School was built in 1889 as a one room elementary and functioned until 1946 when enrollment declined too low to keep it open. After the school sat vacant for several years it, was deeded to Contra Costa County in 1957 and was used as a community center and the meeting site of the Tassajara Fire District. When that district merged into SRV Fire in 1990 the new district inherited the school and offered it to the Museum, which declined due to a focus on restoring the 1891 Southern Pacific Railroad Danville Depot, which currently houses the museum.

Although the fire district continues to maintain the building in good standing, the museum and district board decided that it made more sense to have the museum take responsibility. With the goal of preserving the school and its educational use, the SRVFPD board voted in June to declare the school surplus property with the intent of deeding it to the museum.

However, a title search disclosed that the deed had never been registered in the name of either the Tassjara Fire District or San Ramon Valley Fire and was still held by the county. To remedy the oversight, the county Board of Supervisors voted on Sept. 11 to officially transfer the school site via a quitclaim deed to the museum with the unanimous support of the fire district and museum boards.

SRVUSD third graders, along with students from local private schools, will continue to experience a typical school day in 1888. Students will read from McGuffey Readers, do ciphering -- or math -- on the blackboard and practice penmanship with quill pens. At lunchtime, time travelers eat around picnic tables and play 1880s schoolyard games.

"(Students) get to see history instead of reading it in a tome, this makes it come alive," Warren said.

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